Opinion | Lack of environmental public interest litigation in no one's best interest
If authorities want courts to resolve social conflict, environmental cases are a good start
The absence from the latest draft amendments to the Environmental Protection Law (EPL) of a clause allowing public interest litigation has troubled many.
Just this August, the Civil Procedure Law (CPL) was amended to include a new public interest litigation clause which allows "government departments and concerned organisations as designated by law" to bring lawsuits in relation to "behaviours which harm public interest like environmental pollution or infringement of consumers' rights".
The final wording was watered down, but it still got many people excited. For the first time, it gave formal recognition to public interest litigation, as China struggles to cope with growing social problems.
Given that amendment, the logical next step would have been to include a similar clause in the EPL, which is going through its first revision in 23 years. The first draft was taken up by the National People's Congress Standing Committee in August.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has twice called for the inclusion of such a clause, in the draft amendments it proposed in August last year and again in its comments released last week on the version finally tabled by the Standing Committee.
So why was it not included? According to a ministry official in the last month, there is one point of contention: who can sue. But this same issue was debated and resolved in a hard-fought, if unsatisfactory, compromise over the CPL amendment.
