环境司法专门化视阈下环境法庭之检视与完善

随着环境问题日益凸显,我国积极推进环境司法专门化进程,从最高人民法院到基层人民法院初步形成了具有中国特色的环境法庭体系。这一体系由环境保护审判庭、环境保护合议庭、环境保护巡回法庭以及为数不多的基层环境保护派出法庭构成。目前的环境法庭主要采用"三加一"模式、"三合一"模式、"二合一"模式以及单一模式等四种审理方式,在缓解环境案件审判压力、公正审理环境案件、推进环境公益诉讼、提高环境司法水平等方面发挥了一定的作用。但同时亦应注意到,现有的环境法庭存在诸多问题:基层人民法院缺少法定权限,中级以上人民法院缺少设立环境法庭的程序性依据,致使法律依据不足;缺乏合理的机构建制,级别管辖和地域管辖制度不甚科学;受案范围有限和受害者起诉意愿不足,致使案源不足;特别程序缺失,监测评估机构缺乏中立性,审判人员专业性不强,致使支持保障机制不健全。为此,应从如下几个方面完善我国的环境法庭:首先,为环境法庭建设提供明确的法律依据,规范环境法庭的设立、职责定位及基本权限等事项,将环境法庭建设全面纳入法制轨道;其次,健全环境法庭体系,着重健全环境法庭审级设置,同时完善地域管辖;再次,改进审判模式,健全"多审合一"程序;再次,拓宽案件来源,合理确定环境公益诉讼的起诉主体,扩大受案范围,完善鼓励起诉机制;最后,完善支持保障机制,针对一审程序设立专业陪审员,针对二审程序设立专家委员会。

Challenges and solutions for China's environmental court in context of environmental judicial specialization

The environmental court system has stepped into its embryo with Chinese characteristics attributed to the hard push from all walks of the society,especially the progress of environmental judicial specialization,to cope with increasingly prominent problems in pollution and natural resources degradation.This court system is comprised of environmental tribunals,collegiate benches,circuit courts as well as detached tribunals at county level.The trial modes include ‘Three and One’,‘Three in One’,‘Two in One’ and singleton pattern,all of which as a whole,to some extent,contributed to the progress of environmental judicial specialization that China has made in the last few years.However,the problems and obstacles rooted in the China's environmental court system are worth paying more attention to.For instance,county level courts are lack of the authority to make relevant decisions while the intermediate and above courts have no procedural rules to cite for setting up environmental tribunals,both of which ask for legislative improvement;territoryand hierarchy-based jurisdiction are not clear-cut.Limited actionable scope and the unwillingness of pollution victims to file lawsuits result in case shortage for existing environment courts;and supporting systems fail to play their roles;for example,the special procedure is absent,monitoring evaluation organizations are not fully independent,and judges need more professional training.Facing these challenges,the potential solutions include five aspects.First,the environmental court system should operate in a law-based way through making further laws or regulations to provide legal basis for establishing environmental courts and defining the authority and responsibility of each court.Second,the hierarchy and regional distribution of environmental courts should be the key issue to discuss with in the next stage of environmental court system construction.Third,the trial model should be upgraded to ‘ All in One’.Forth,standing and litigable scope should be reasonably improved,and pollution victim's willingness to be a plaintiff should be encouraged.Fifth,the supporting mechanisms,inter alia,professional juries in the first trial procedure and committees of experts in the appellate procedure are essential in the further progress of specializing environmental judiciary.