Recent Environmental Law and Public Participation News
Wuxi Environment Court issues verdict on its first water pollution case (Google translation)
Two onion farmers who lost a year’s worth of harvest received a favorable verdict in the latest decision of Wuxi Environmental Court, as a local forge was ordered to compensate them 91,600 RMB for the damages suffered. The farmers had first received compensation from the company for harm caused by polluted ditch oil in early 2008. However, several months later they discovered that the forge had failed to address the underlying problems with the leaking of contaminants, suing the company for additional damages caused by another occurrence of damaged crops. The Wuxi court, after listening to arguments by both sides, announced that the burden of proof fell on the forge, which had failed to prove that its actions did not violate existing water pollution statutes. (Source: Wuxi News Network)
Chongqing establishes heavy metal pollution response system (Google translation)
Last week, over eleven Chongqing departments jointly issued the “Chongqing 2009 Heavy Metal pollution Remediation Plan,” setting into action a framework for addressing existing violations and possible environmental emergencies involving lead, cadmium, arsenic, and other heavy metal dangers. The plan sets requirements for all district- and county-level agencies to fulfill and places control of special administrative actions in the hands of a team of municipal enforcers. New standards for comprehensive rectification actions have also been designated in the new plan. (Source: China Environment News)
Transparent decision-making needed to maintain environmental protection success (Google translation)
The negative reactions of local residents to proposed incineration plants in China this year has resulted in two highly-publicized cases that show how crucial information transparency is in environmental protection work. Government information disclosure, China Environment News notes, ultimately soothes over citizen concerns and breeds trust between officials and residents. In these cases of proposed waste incineration projects, not releasing any information ultimately harmed the ability of local officials to build the plant, whether or not the plant would have had any negative environmental consequences. The Beitou incineration plant in Taipei, Taiwan provides an example where information disclosure has worked successfully; with their concerns answered, local residents did not oppose construction of the plant, and the waste plant is even a popular tourist site today. (Source: China Environment News)
Examining the Judicial Guide” to Yunnan’s Breakthrough Regulations for Environmental Protection Cases
In a previous blog entry, we introduced the Yunnan Environmental Court Forum, held by the Yunnan High Court on May 13. In addition to a affirming a commitment to promoting environmental courts across Yunnan Province, the forum’s Minutes also act a judicial guide to environmental protection cases in Yunnan. In this article, we look at this new Judicial Guide and examine the breakthroughs made for environmental protection cases—especially environmental public interest litigation cases.
Yunnan Province Announces Plan to Expand Environmental Protection Courts and Guide Public Interest Litigation
Three early adopters of environmental protection courts – Guizhou, Jiangsu, and Yunnan Provinces – have carried out pilot programs, each utilizing environmental protection courts with different characteristics. Guiyang’s practical effort may be the most drastic case, whether in taking on the first environmental public interest litigation case of the Tianfeng Chemical Plant or having its own Procuratorate file an environmental civil lawsuit. Guiyang can be considered to have made the boldest judicial attempts in advancing public interest litigation by the environmental protection courts. Meanwhile, the Wuxi environmental protection court can be regarded as more of a prudent thinker. All of the Wuxi court’s tried cases so far have been administrative non-litigation cases (though it is related to its role as a supporter of administrative enforcement in environmental protection). So far, the Wuxi environmental protection court has not heard one environmental litigation or environmental public interest litigation case of any significance. Despite these shortcomings, the Wuxi EP court does a good job in theoretical survey and research work. In November 2008, the city of Wuxi unveiled China’s first local regulations on environmental public interest litigation and introduced an innovative system by which the Procuratorate urges relevant government bureaus to fulfill their environmental responsibilities by bringing lawsuits before the court. While Yunnan Province was the latest of the three to establish its environmental court, it heard its first case of environmental litigation this March; one month later, the Chengjiang Country Environmental Protection Court took on the criminal case of the arsenic contamination of Yangzonghai Lake. Just last week, on May 13, Yunnan Province held a discussion on promoting environmental courts in the region, in which the Yunnan High People’s Court officially called for the establishment of more environmental courts around the province. Meanwhile, the meeting agreed to use a summarized version of the meeting’s main points in the process to standardize and guide the trial proceedings of the environmental protection courts. All of these indicate that, after six months of development, the Yunnan Environmental Protection Court feels ambitious and confident about its future.
The Kunming Environmental Protection Court: How Significant is its First Case?
After the dramatic contamination of Yangzonghai Lake in 2008, the Kunming Intermediate Court found itself under intense scrutiny from the media and Yunnan residents. Perhaps in response to this, on December 11, 2008, the city officially established the Kunming Environmental Protection Court, following in the footsteps of the Guiyang and Wuxi environmental courts. In order to clearly define the Environmental Protection Court’s objectives and procedures, the Kunming Intermediate Court, the Kunming Procuratorate, the Kunming Public Security Bureau, and Kunming Environmental Protection Bureau jointly released the “Implementing Opinions on Establishing an Environmental Protection Law Enforcement Coordination Mechanism.” According to the “Implementing Opinions,” the Environmental Protection Court, which is located within the Kunming Intermediate Court, is responsible for criminal, civil, and administrative cases involving environmental protection, as well as the enforcement of such cases. This so-called “four-in-one” format is basically the same structure seen in the Guiyang and Wuxi environmental protection courts. It’s worth noting, however, that the opinions specifically set forth that the Kunming Environmental Protection Court should explore two special types of lawsuits: environmental public interest litigation and cross-jurisdictional pollution lawsuits. It’s fair to say that these are two of the central (and most difficult to resolve) issues in environmental litigation today, so Kunming’s decision to explicitly raise these issues reflects both courage and ambition.
Now, three months after the formation of the Kunming Environmental Protection Court, have there been any breakthroughs or noteworthy experience with respect to environmental public interest litigation and cross-jurisdictional lawsuits? This week’s Living News carried two articles about the Kunming Environmental Protection Court’s first hearing of an environmental case.
Wuxi City Releases Regulation on Environmental Public Interest Litigation
Wuxi
The Wuxi Environmental Court, the first and only Environmental Protection court that has openly called for public interest cases brought by NGOs and individuals, was recently placed under the spotlight once again after Wuxi city released a regulation on environmental public interest litigation. This regulation is said to be the first local regulation of its kind in China and was warmly welcomed by environmentalists seeking to take environmental public litigation from theoretical discussion into reality.
The Wuxi regulation introduces a quite innovative system, by which the Procuratorate urges relevant government agencies to fulfill environmental protection responsibilities by bringing lawsuits before the court. Under this procedure, if an environmental protection department fails to respond to the actions that constitute violations of environmental laws, the procuratorate is entitled to send suggestion letters to the environmental protection department, urging them to take actions against the violations. Read more…
Environmental Law and Public Participation News
Wuxi
Several big environmental law news items were covered by the Chinese media this week. The culmination of discontent over heating price and other utilities hearings finally convinced the government of Zhengzhou to improve the openness and accessibility of administrative decision hearings, but a recent survey revealed that many Chinese still believe the hearings to be a mere formality. More importantly, the city of Wuxi passed the first-ever environmental public interest litigation law, greatly enhancing the scope of admissibility for environmental litigation in its courts.
Eight articles after the jump.