Date: October 3, 2012

Researcher Kathinka Fürst was invited in the Climate Change Law and Policy Forum No. 12. in discussing some of the important development in China’s environmental litigations, and behind these litigations, the actions and movement of environment groups. Researcher Fürst dedicated herself in China’s environmental judicial studies. Her research methods are not limited to related litigation contexts only but she thrived to understand the dynamic and proceedings behind environmental litigations in China, using research methods of sociology, such as the application of field studies.

Researcher Fürst pointed out that the environmental litigations in China has boomed in recent years. Related issues of litigation movement depend on the demand, support and claims of environmental groups, just like the situations in other countries. The most common environmental litigation in China nowadays is civil litigation, mainly regarding water or air pollution affecting citizen’s life and causing damages. With the support of environmental groups, actions were taken to ask for remedies from corporations whom had caused such pollutions. For these local environmental group assisted in claiming remedies, most litigations are prone to be affected by local politics, since under the system of the central government’s tax reform, there were pressures of renting, investment promotion, tax revenue collections, and local politics issues in each province.

However, for big cases that received national attentions, the litigation might proceed under national or even global environmental groups by the request of the central government. Therefore, when it comes to observing China’s environmental litigations, one must put in the contributions of politics and the attributes of the environmental groups into discussions. That is also why her research was conducted through field studies. Researcher Fürst pointed out that most of the environmental litigations in China were overruled by the court for reasons such as no jurisdiction, or the party’s lack of standing to commence a litigation. In recent years, the environmental litigations prospered since China has a special petition system, but for the observation of environmental litigations, the main emphasis should be put in the legislative and judicial framework of China and other pursuit alternatives available for further discussions.