论环境刑事诉讼上诉期间生态修复行为的法律定性

环境刑事诉讼上诉期间的生态环境修复行为逐渐被一些地方法院在二审程序中作为从宽减刑的情节考察。虽然此举有益于激励环境刑事被告人积极履行环境恢复义务,然则在未有明文规定的先决条件下贸然将其纳入从宽量刑考量,也许会打破传统二审救济纠错的应然功能设计,使得环境刑事诉讼二审功能的实现存在矛盾偏差。由是对于上诉期间发生的生态修复行为的法律定性,应明确归属于判决后刑罚执行阶段的减刑情节予以考量,并且为配合化解此类矛盾,我国须及时制定相应的专门法规、适用原则和配套制度措施,从而最大限度发挥生态修复行为在环境刑事诉讼中的效用。

The Legal Nature of Ecological Restoration Behavior During the Appeal Period of Environmental Criminal Litigation

The behavior of ecological environment restoration during the appeal period of environmental criminal litigation has been gradually investigated by some local courts as the circumstances of leniency and commutation in the second instance procedure. Although this is beneficial to encourage the environmental criminal defendants to actively fulfill the environmental restoration obligations, it may break the traditional remedy and error correction measures of the second instance if it is rashly included into the consideration of lenient sentencing without any specific preconditions, which caused contradictions and deviations in the realization of the second-instance function of environmental criminal litigation. Therefore, the legal nature of ecological restoration behavior during the appeal period should be clearly attributed to the circumstances of commutation after the judgment. In order to resolve such conflicts, China needs to formulate corresponding special laws and regulations, applicable principles and supporting system measures in time, so as to maximize the effectiveness of ecological restoration in environmental criminal proceedings.