Environmental Public Interest Litigation – Maritime Courts “Changing the Game”
As the Chinese public and the media focus their attention towards environmental public interest litigation on a few court systems around the country, the role of maritime courts has emerged as a surprising alternative. Originally, the Guangzhou maritime court accepted a environmental public interest litigation case from the local procuratorate with a civil plaintiff in 2008, finally issuing its judgment on December 9, 2008. The polluters were found responsible for environmental damages, with the civil liability totalling 110,000 RMB. This case marked the first Guangdong environmental public interest litigation case satisfactorily resolved in favor of the prosecution. Twelve days earlier, on November 27, the prosecutors at the Guiyang provincial environmental protection court concluded their first environmental public interest litigation case as well. After many attempts at environmental public interest litigation, the sudden conclusion of two cases generated no small amount of shock. While the Guiyang case was the first to be decided, the Guangzhou case is nevertheless notable for being the first environmental public interest litigation case with a civil plaintiff to be decided in favor of the prosecution. In cases settled by ruling, the court shall discuss important substantive and procedural problems in a complete and detailed manner; while in cases settled by mediation, only basic facts and the content of mediation agreement are required, and the court does not need to present its position and understanding over related legal issues. Therefore, even though the mediation case in Guiyang has played a positive role in settling disputes and stemming litigation, the ruling case in Guangzhou marine court seems to be more valuable for study and discussion from the perspective of legal research and institutional design.
As a matter of fact, it is not new for the procuratorate to file civil lawsuits. According to “Tentative ideas on China’s environmental public interest litigation and its legislation” written by Bie Tao from Department of Policies, Laws, and Regulations, at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the procuratorate in Fangcheng county, Henan province was the first one to file “civil public litigation” (民事公诉) in 1997, requesting, as the defendant, that the court confirm that the sales contract of state owned assets was invalid. The procuratorate eventually won the suit. Later on, procuratorates across the country have seen nearly 200 such suits. In the environmental field, some local procuratorates had brought some environmental civil litigation, but these cases were in the form of civil suits attached to criminal actions (i.e., they have not been independent civil actions). In the public interest litigation cases of Guiyang Environmental Protection Court and Guangzhou Maritime Court, the procuratorate tested out the use of civil lawsuits with the procuratorates as plaintiff, without any related criminal litigation. This marks a great stride forward in institutional innovation, and Guangzhou Maritime Court’s ruling has made substantive progress in this regard. Apart from environmental protection court, the maritime court also plays a significant role in the institutional reform of environmental public interest litigation.
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