One Year of Openness: Greenlaw and the First Anniversary of China’s Open Information Regulations
公开一年间:Greenlaw《环境信息公开办法（试行）》实施一周年回顾
NRDC’s revamped Greenlaw (www.greenlaw.org.cn) site officially debuted on October 5th, 2008. The overall positive response to the “Open Environmental Information Regulations (Trial)” since May 1st, 2008 has played an important role in the creation of the site. The update rate of the old Greenlaw site was not up to the task of quickly dealing with new environmental law and open information developments, so revisions to the site were made in addition to continuing the original news service. Since February, the amount of writing on the site has rapidly increased, and the site has switched from its original schedule of 2-3 weekly updates to daily updates. There have already been 118 news pieces about open environmental information and 108 environmental law-related blog posts, among which 21 are posts about open environmental information. Over 1000 foreign and Chinese now visit the site each week.
In addition to laying the foundations for information disclosure in the State Council’s “Regulations on Open Government Information,” which sets legal obligations on the Chinese government for open government information, the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s “Measures on Open Environmental Information (for Trial Implementation)” is not just the first time the State Council has issued an implementation regulation concerning a government bureau. By specifying further responsibilities for the enterprises, these regulations could closely integrate with other environmental regulations, such as clean production promotion laws. This regulation promises to be the proverbial hammer that will smash the wall between polluting enterprises and the public, turning China from a bureaucracy-oriented country to a science- and democracy-oriented one, from a country that singled-mindedly emphasizes economic growth to one that focuses on sustainable development. In addition to these optimistic feelings, there are still some unavoidable, unfavorable challenges to be confronted. Looking back at the developments of the past year reveals a developing legal regime where the circumstances remain quite complicated.
China’s Supreme People’s Court to Release Judicial Interpretations on Open Government Information This Year
The first anniversaries of the State Council Open Government Information Regulations (OGI Regulations) and the State Environmental Protection Administration Measures on Environmental Open Information are tomorrow. We will be posting a Year in Review article by my colleague Joan Hu that tells the tale of open information in China over the past 12 months, so stay tuned.
As we look back on this first year, not surprisingly, there have already been quite a few cases in which lack of clarity, strained readings or outright disregard for the regulations have led to members of the public having difficulty in obtaining environmental information. Heilongjiang’s refusal to release information about polluting enterprises (here and here) last week is a fitting coda to a first year fraught with open information ups and downs. So, it was welcome news to see a Caijing (Chinese only) report on the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) plan to release a judicial interpretation on the adjudication of open government information cases this year (a public comment draft may be available on or about May 1). As Tsinghua University constitutional law professor Cheng Jie notes: “In practice, some courts have been unwilling to accept these [open information] cases, and, if cases are accepted, the rate of favorable decisions for the plaintiff is very low… This state of affairs will lead to the accumulation of contradictions.” (不过实践中，一些法院不愿意受理这类案件，即使受理了胜诉率也很低，程洁认为，这会导致矛盾的积累。)
The Caijing article highlights three particular areas that need clarification. There are certainly other areas in need of clarification, but these are worth highlighting.
Environmental Law and Public Participation News
As the cold winter air starts to chill much of China, the hot topics for the week are rising heating prices and the need for fair hearings. Rising heating prices have imposed a great burden on Chinese families already strapped for cash, and a number of articles and editorials in the Chinese media now express concern about the fairness of heating price hearings held by the government, where information on the price of heating is not fully transparent. Citizen complaints have already caused the Shantou government to freeze any heating price increase for this winter – but as the Xinhua survey below points out, most citizens believe longer-lasting change in the form of government subsidies and open hearings is necessary.
Five articles after the jump.