Green law change would limit lawsuits
Draft amendment would prevent civil groups taking on polluters in the courts, lawyer says, while NGO calls legal curbs discriminatory
A draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Law would restrict the filing of public interest lawsuits to a government-affiliated body, casting doubt on the integrity of the much-anticipated legislation.
The amendment received the second of its three scheduled reviews yesterday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
The law as amended would allow only the All-China Environment Federation and its provincial-level subsidiaries the right to file pollution-related lawsuits in the public interest, China National Radio said.
The clause has sparked outrage among grass-roots green groups and environmental lawyers, who are calling the proposed move "an unprecedented about-face", as it contradicts previous government vows to punish polluters through legal means. Even environmental officials have doubts.
Bie Tao , an official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection's Policy and Law Department, said the clause was aimed at clarifying "who can sue", after the concept of public interest litigation was first legalised in August via an amendment to the Civil Procedure Law.
"But personally, I think that specifying only one organisation [will not] meet the nation's legal demands in tackling environmental grievances," he said by phone. "As far as I know, the federation has only about seven or eight branches at the local level."
Suggesting alternative options, he said: "The scope [of public-interest claimants] could be expanded … and legally registered environmental groups could also have the right to sue."