Guiyang promotes eco-civilization
On January 8, 2010, the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People’s Congress approved a local legislation called “Guiyang City Promoting Eco-civilization Regulation” (《贵阳市促进生态文明建设条例》). This regulation was first passed by Guiyang City People’s Congress in October of 2009, and it contains provisions on environmental public interest litigation and other important environmental protection measures. The regulation explicitly allows environmental groups to obtain standing in environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) in both civil and administrative cases. In addition, the regulation encourages legal aid organizations to provide legal aid for EPIL cases. This is the first piece of legislation promulgated by a local People’s Congress on EPIL in China, though it is important to note that, as a local piece of legislation, it is not nationally applicable. The regulation will become effective beginning March 1, 2010.
Our EPIL team took a trip to the Qingzhen Environmental Protection (EP) Court last week. Over the course of the visit we learned that it was the EP court that had suggested and continually supported the local legislation on EPIL. The key provisions related to this issue are Article 23 and Article 24. Article 23 states that the procuratorate, Environmental Protection Bureaus, and environmental public interest groups are eligible to bring civil EPIL cases to court; and, the procuratorate and environmental public interest groups are eligible to bring administrative EPIL cases to court. Article 24 encourages legal aid organization to provide legal assistance for environmental litigation. Members of the EP court think this legislation will make the court’s EPIL practice easier, as it provides another legal basis for the court to accept and decide EPIL cases.
The language of the two articles is shown below:
Article 23: The procuratorate, environmental protection administrative organs, environmental protection public interest organizations, for environmental public interest, can bring suits according to law against the behavior of polluting the environment, damaging resources, [and/or] ask for the responsible parties to stop harmful behavior, remove the nuisance, eliminate dangers, restore the original condition, and other remedies.
检察机关、环境保护管理机构、环保公益组织为了环境公共利益，可以依照法律对污染环境、破坏资源的行为提起诉讼，要求有关责任主体承担停止侵害、排除妨碍、消除危险、恢复原状等责任。
The procuratorate, environmental protection public interest organizations, for environmental public interest, can bring suits according to law against concrete administrative behavior and administrative non-action that involve the environment and resources, [and/or] ask for relevant administrative organs to fulfill their management responsibilities, which are beneficial for environmental protection and pollution prevention.
检察机关、环保公益组织为了环境公共利益，可以依照法律对涉及环境资源的具体行政行为和行政不作为提起诉讼，要求有关行政机关履行有利于保护环境防止污染的行政管理职责。
Article 24: Judicial and procuratorate organs, when handling environmental litigation cases, shall timely submit judicial and procuratorate recommendations to administrative organs and other relevant units, to promote the relevant administrative organs and units to improve their work.
审判、检察机关办理环境诉讼案件，应当适时向行政机关或者有关单位提出司法、检察建议，促进有关行政机关和单位改进工作。
Encourage legal aid organizations to provide legal assistance in environmental litigation cases.
鼓励法律援助机构对环境诉讼提供法律援助。
Comments
Leave a Reply