A brief introduction to the Chinese Environmental Law

Thèmes abordés

A brief introduction- chinese-environnement Law

Résumé du document

Before embarking on survey of Chinese views on environmental law and policy, we will present background material on the development of environmental law and policy in China and shortcomings and key problem areas in China's environmental administration. This article will treat, in brief, the experience of previous Chinese governments in the environmental area and the response of the People's Republic of China to environment related problems. It will then analyze the interplay between environmental law and policy, general problems in defining and enforcing substantive and procedural environmental rights, and conflict resolution.Finally, it will note some shortcoming in China's legal system pertaining to the area of environmental Law. We will focus on five parts: the development of environmental law and policy in China (1), the interplay between law and policy (2), the property and procedural rights (3), the conflict resolution (4) and the prospects for the future.

Like other ancient civilizations, China's history reveals considerable understanding of the need for ecological balance, rooted in the efforts of people centuries ago to survive and prosper in agrarian and pastoral societies. China's religious and philosophical traditions stressed the need for man to live in harmony with nature and careful not to upset the delicate forces that sustained civilization. Indeed, the emperor's legitimacy, known as the "Mandate of Heaven", was signified in part by the absence of natural disasters. Conversely, floods, earthquakes, and other dislocations in the natural order were considered portents of misgovernment and could be used by subordinate powers to criticize the throne.

Extraits

[...] As a result, rural producers at outset tended to use their newly expanded rights to harvest what they regarded as a sudden windfall before the inevitable policy reversal took place. As the section on forestry in this volume reveals, that reveals did not take place. The regime moved instead to stabile policy and enforce property rights while setting restrictions on logging, in preparation for the subsequent enlargement of property rights and marketing freedoms.Indeed, the leadership was soon convinced that the reforms would work only by extending the period of leaseholds, granting a right of inheritance, and allowing a limited right to transfer or reassign property rights to others individuals. [...]

[...] In 1979 the PRC passed its drafts environmental protection Law and forestry Law. The PRC has also promulgated specific laws and regulations on the regulation of water pollution and marine resources; the preservation of land; grasslands and fisheries; mineral, water, and soil conservation; and wildlife protection. III-THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN LAW AND POLICY IN CHINA From a political point of view, it is particularly remarquable that support for pollution control and many other aspects of environmental protection has by and large remained firm regardless of shifts in the relative influence of contending leadership groups, notably the reformers versus the more conservative readjusters. [...]

[...] It was necessitated by the high degree of autonomy now enjoyed by agricultural production units and made possible by instrument factory's access to the state budget and off-budget funds. The monetary damages closely resemble a side payment by the victim to the polluter to persuade him to alter his behavior, of the form recommended by coarse in the name of socially efficient solutions. VI-CONCLUSION: Looking toward the future, other issues will have to be addressed. Conflicts between resource use and preservation have so far been minimal because of the low level of economic development and limitations on the freedom of expression. [...]

[...] With regard to less formal means of conflict resolution, the principal mediating organs are the local environmental protection bureaus and the pollution monitoring stations. In recent cases the Chongqing bureau has mediated disputes involving air and noise pollution caused by brick and tile kilns newly constructed by rural farming collectives on land adjoining state properties and workers' residences. When called in to investigate of the Baishulin Brigade brick and tile on the Bashan Instruments Plant, after several years of mounting complains, the bureau discovered sulfur dioxide levels more than ten times greater than state standars, noxious gases, and clogged drainage ditches. [...]

[...] This is most apparent with regard to the commodity-based aspects of the environment like forestry and grasslands were slow timber growth or production of stumpage has been a chronic problem. With the exception of an odd program like obligatory tree planting, which as noted earlier, was adopted for political reasons and serves only a tangential role, there has been a pronounced shift away from honorific incentives and centralized management which proved to be both economically and ecologically inefficient. Instead, the regime has elected to emphasize the devolution of usage-based property rights to households and groups of households within the collective sector and to relax marketing restrictions in order to give producers a fair return on the effort. [...]