China News Service, August 14 – According to an official WeChat message from the Supreme People’s Court, on the eve of the upcoming National Ecology Day on August 15, 12 central and state agencies, including the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration, jointly issued the “Opinions on Strengthening Coordination in Law Enforcement and Judicial Work to Serve and Safeguard the Ecological Environmental Protection and High-Quality Development of the Yangtze River Basin” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”).
The “Opinions” consist of 18 articles, divided into four parts: general requirements, strengthening coordination, optimizing convergence, and deepening cooperation.
Part One: General Requirements. Articles 1 to 3 of the “Opinions” propose overall requirements for strengthening coordination between judicial and administrative law enforcement work based on the basic principles stipulated in Article 3 of the Yangtze River Protection Law. First, the objective requirement is to adhere to ecological priority and green development, firmly establish and practice the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” and 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. Second, the content requirement is to adhere to coordinated planning and systematic governance, improve the integrated protection and systematic governance mechanism for mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, and enhance the systematic, holistic, and coordinated governance of the Yangtze River Basin. Third, the work requirement is to adhere to advancing in accordance with the law, being pragmatic and efficient, protecting the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin with the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law, accurately applying laws and regulations such as the Criminal Law, the Civil Code, and the Yangtze River Protection Law, and forming a strong synergy in the rule of law with joint efforts.
Part Two: Strengthening Coordination. Articles 4 to 8 of the “Opinions” specify specific measures to strengthen coordination in law enforcement and judicial work from five aspects. First, enhancing communication and consultation, focusing on key areas such as pollution prevention and control, the ten-year fishing ban in the Yangtze River, and sand mining management in river channels, as well as frequently occurring cases, to unify law enforcement and judicial standards and improve the standardization of law enforcement and judicial work. Second, supporting law enforcement actions, emphasizing both handling cases in accordance with the law and promoting governance, and 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. Third, providing technical support, strengthening the development of environmental assessment and appraisal institutions and expert teams, improving assessment and appraisal standards, and sharing expert databases to address practical difficulties such as high costs and challenges in appraisals. Fourth, promoting information sharing, enhancing digital empowerment and information technology, advancing cross-departmental big data collaboration in case handling and reporting, and sharing law enforcement and judicial data on the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin. Fifth, diversifying dispute resolution, strengthening coordination between government and courts, leveraging the professional advantages of administrative law enforcement agencies, and ensuring the organic integration of environmental resource litigation and non-litigation dispute resolution mechanisms to properly resolve conflicts.
Part Three: Optimizing Convergence. Articles 9 to 13 of the “Opinions” outline measures to optimize the convergence of law enforcement and judicial work from five aspects. First, improving case transfer mechanisms, strengthening the convergence between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, environmental public interest litigation, and ecological environmental damage compensation litigation in the Yangtze River Protection Law, and transferring cases that require criminal, civil, or administrative legal liability in accordance with the law. Second, coordinating cross-regional jurisdiction, specifying that the designation of jurisdiction for cross-administrative environmental resource crime cases should follow requirements such as systematic governance, holistic protection, specialized adjudication, and litigation convenience, and promptly consulting with judicial authorities at the same level. Third, facilitating evidence collection and use, ensuring that relevant law enforcement and judicial authorities assist in investigating and obtaining evidence or accessing case files for environmental resource cases, and that verified evidence materials can be used as evidence in accordance with the law. Fourth, coordinating legal liabilities, clarifying the comprehensive and coordinated application of criminal, civil, and administrative legal liabilities, and considering the active fulfillment of ecological restoration and compensation obligations by violators as mitigating factors in accordance with the law. Fifth, collaborating on ecological restoration, strengthening cross-departmental cooperation in ecological restoration, scientifically determining and reasonably implementing restoration plans, and supervising, implementing, and evaluating restoration efforts in accordance with the law to jointly maintain restoration outcomes.
Part Four: Deepening Cooperation. Articles 14 to 18 of the “Opinions” specify cooperation arrangements for deepening law enforcement and judicial work from five aspects. First, establishing daily communication mechanisms, improving routine liaison and communication through meeting minutes, guidelines, and other forms to enhance policy consistency, rule uniformity, and execution coordination. Second, conducting joint research and training, organizing cross-departmental joint research, training, and professional exchange activities to foster a holistic, systematic, and coordinated perspective among law enforcement and judicial personnel and jointly improve their capabilities. Third, jointly building legal education bases, establishing ecological environmental protection and restoration (legal education) bases to integrate ecological restoration, circuit trials, legal publicity, practical education, culture and tourism, and comprehensive governance, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of protection, restoration, and governance. Fourth, conducting joint legal publicity, summarizing and jointly publishing typical cases related to Yangtze River protection and governance, combining legal publicity with the protection, inheritance, and promotion of Yangtze River culture, and telling the story of Yangtze River protection through the rule of law. Fifth, coordinating foreign-related legal efforts, leveraging the Yangtze River Basin’s role as a key link between the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and jointly building a foreign-related legal system and capabilities that meet the requirements of high-quality development and high-level openness to serve the green development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
In the next step, the people’s courts will thoroughly implement the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening Judicial Work in the New Era,” fully enforce the Yangtze River Protection Law, and work with all parties to effectively apply and implement the requirements of the “Opinions.” Together, they will safeguard the “clear waters and green mountains on both banks” of the Yangtze River, make new and greater efforts to serve and ensure high-level ecological environmental protection and high-quality development in the Yangtze River Basin, and build a modern society in harmony between humans and nature.
