Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China, 2023

This book offers readers an accessible and broad-ranging guide to Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL), which has burgeoned in China over the past decade. The aim of this book is to provide a systematic review of Chinese experiences with EPIL in environmental matters, both with a view to gauging its success to date and well as discussing some more critical aspects. To this end, the book systematically examines the establishment and development of EPIL in China's legal, social, and political contexts. It examines particularly the significant role and functions of EPIL in China's environmental governance, and the far-reaching impacts on Chinese civil society and governments. It also offers readers an insiders' perspective in terms of procedural and substantive issues with respect to EPIL, by reviewing the institutional designs, theoretical underpinnings and specific mechanisms, the roles of various participants and stakeholders involved in this legal process. At the same time,it studies leading EPIL cases raised from environmental pollution, natural resource damage and ecological damage, and the effectiveness of environmental adjudication that sustains EPIL as a new form of judicial instrument. This book is written to remedy the gap between Chinese and English literature in this area of law. The analysis of these issues, through a historic and comparative perspective, reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the current legal regime and serves as a basis for recommendations for bringing about more effective EPIL in China.

Part I EPIL in China: Historical Development and Theoretical Foundations.- Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China - An Overview.- Historical Development of Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL) in China.- Defining Public Interest under the Environmental Public Interest Litigation System.- From Compensation to Prevention: Expanding the Function of EPIL in China.- The Standing to Sue of NGOs in Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China: A Doctrinal Analysis of Laws and Cases.- Environmental Public Interest Litigation and the Application of Civil Code.- Part II Substantive and Procedural Issues about EPIL In China.- Procuratorates at the Crossroad: Performance, Controversies and Prospects of Procuratorial EPIL in China.- Litigation for Ecological and Environmental Damage Compensation in China: EPIL with Typical Chinese Characteristics.- The Role of NGOs in China’s Environmental Public Interest Litigation.- Regulating through Litigation: Regulatory Functions ofNGO-Led Civil Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China.- From Advocators to Rule Makers: Exploring the Role of Chinese Lawyers in Environmental Law Making and Public Interest Litigation.- Three-dimensional Model of Expertise-input for EPIL in China.- Judicial Application of Ecological Remediation Liability in EPIL: A Commentary to the Guiding Cases, Gazettes Cases and Model Cases of the SPC in China.- Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Environmental Public Interest Litigation in Soil Pollution Law.- Part III Reform the EPIL System in China: Problems and Solutions.- The Erroneous Setting of the Essential Attribute of Environmental Public Interest Liability in China.- From the Ternary Model to the Binary Model - On the Reconstruction of Litigation Systems for Environmental Public Interest.- Drawbacks in the System Design of the Environmental Public Interest Litigation and Ways for Improvement.

Prof. Xi Wang is a professor in law at the Law School of Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST). He is the Director of the Platform for Research on Ecological Civilization and Environmental Rule of Law (PRECERL) of the KUST. He worked and served as a professor and the Director of the Environmental and Resources Law Institute of the Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University from 2002 to 2019, and served as a professor and a Vice Director of the Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL), Wuhan University from 1987 to 2002.

Presents the most recent significant developments in environmental governance and judicial reform of China Systemically reviews the fundamentals in theory and practice of EPIL in China Provides the most current research and authoritative information in the field