On the occasion of the National Ecology Day, on August 14, the Supreme People’s Court and 11 other central and state agencies jointly issued the “Opinions on Strengthening Law Enforcement and Judicial Collaboration to Serve and Safeguard the Ecological Environmental Protection and High-Quality Development of the Yangtze River Basin” (referred to as the “Opinions”). The “Opinions” consist of 18 articles, clearly requiring efforts to serve and safeguard the implementation of major regional strategies such as the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, to enhance systematic, holistic, and collaborative governance of the Yangtze River Basin, to protect the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin with the strictest institutions and the most rigorous rule of law, and to accurately apply laws and regulations such as the Criminal Law, the Civil Code, and the Yangtze River Protection Law, forming a strong legal synergy with joint management.
In terms of strengthening collaborative measures in law enforcement and judicial work, the “Opinions” propose focusing on key areas and high-frequency cases such as pollution prevention and control, the 10-year fishing ban in the Yangtze River, and sand mining management in river channels, unifying law enforcement and judicial standards and scales, and comprehensively improving the standardization level of law enforcement and judiciary. It emphasizes balancing lawful case handling with promoting governance, supporting administrative law enforcement agencies in conducting joint actions across administrative regions, ecologically sensitive areas, and areas with frequent environmental violations in the Yangtze River Basin. It also calls for enhancing digital empowerment and information technology, advancing cross-departmental big data collaboration in case handling and information sharing, and sharing law enforcement and judicial data on the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin.
Regarding deepening arrangements for law enforcement and judicial cooperation, the “Opinions” require joint efforts in legal publicity, timely summarizing and jointly releasing typical cases and examples related to Yangtze River protection and governance, combining legal publicity with the protection, inheritance, and promotion of Yangtze River culture, and effectively communicating the rule of law stories of Yangtze River protection. At the same time, it emphasizes foreign-related legal collaboration, fully leveraging the Yangtze River Basin’s role as a vital link between the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, jointly building a foreign-related legal system and capabilities that meet the requirements of high-quality development and high-level opening-up, and serving the green development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
