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Enforcing law through authoritarian environmentalism? State and non-state actors in China's environmental public interest litigation
[journal article]
Abstract Numerous studies have examined China's authoritarian environmentalism, with a focus on policy-making and implementation. We argue that law enforcement should also be investigated as a crucial stage. Specifically, we examine environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) and analyse a novel dataset ... view more
Numerous studies have examined China's authoritarian environmentalism, with a focus on policy-making and implementation. We argue that law enforcement should also be investigated as a crucial stage. Specifically, we examine environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) and analyse a novel dataset of 7010 EPIL court judgements from 2015 to 2020. We find that state prosecutors dominate EPIL activities, while the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is strictly limited. We also show great variations in EPIL lawsuits filed by state prosecutors across provinces, indicating high local discretion over environmental law enforcement. Lastly, we doubt whether the great number of EPIL outputs from state prosecutors will produce significant environmental outcomes, because they tend to target low-hanging fruit, in contrast to the more challenging and environmentally profound EPIL cases initiated by NGOs. We highlight the value of using the authoritarian environmentalism framework to contextualise debates surrounding the development of EPIL in China.... view less
Keywords
China; environmental protection; environmental policy; environmental law; policy implementation; lawsuit; law enforcement; non-governmental organization
Classification
Law
Free Keywords
Nichtregierungsorganisation; Umweltschutzmaßnahmen
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 464-487
Journal
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 52 (2023) 3
ISSN
1868-4874
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed