Research on the Determination of "Major Risks" in Preventive Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jel.202614209

Author(s)

Xiao Guo

Affiliation(s)

Faculty of Law, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China

Abstract

The green rule of law in the 21st century promotes the transformation of environmental justice to pre-emptive prevention, and the preventive environmental civil public interest litigation system established by relevant judicial interpretations in 2015 provides an important judicial tool for ecological protection. However, as a core element, "major risk" lacks clear norms in its connotation, object, subject and standards, resulting in differences in cognition, misalignment of rights and responsibilities, and inconsistent judgments in judicial practice. To this end, this paper proposes to clarify that the object of "major risk" is limited to the public interest of the environment, establish the core determination status of the court, and construct the elemental rules of "illegality of the act, causal relationship, and possibility of actual harm" based on the criterion of "highly probable damage and serious irreversible consequences".

Keywords

Preventive Environmental; Public Interest Litigation; Major Risks

References

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