Zhang Xuezhang, Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, answered reporters' questions on "Typical Cases of Public Interest Litigation for Wildlife Protection by Procuratorial Organs"
Wildlife protection is the scope of prosecution public interest litigation in the field of ecological environment and resource protection. In recent years, local procuratorates have handled a number of typical public interest lawsuits in the field of wildlife protection. After the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the public's voices about improving wildlife protection legislation and strengthening law enforcement and justice have been rising one after another. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress initiated the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law in early February. On February 24, the 16th Session of the 13th National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted the "Decision on Comprehensive Ban on Illegal Wildlife Trade, Elimination of Wild Habits of Wild Animals, and Effective Protection of People's Health and Safety" (hereinafter referred to as " Decision "). Many experts and scholars have put forward suggestions, hoping that the procuratorial organs will increase their efforts in handling wildlife protection cases, give full play to the procuratorial function of public interest litigation, timely release relevant typical cases, strengthen source prevention and control, consolidate social consensus, and promote the enhancement of national biosafety governance. On February 28, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released the "Typical Cases of Public Interest Litigation on Wildlife Protection by Procuratorial Organs", and Deputy Prosecutor General Zhang Xuezhang answered questions from reporters.
Reporter: Is wildlife protection a legal field for public interest litigation?
Zhang Xueyi: Yes. At present, the statutory areas of public interest litigation in China's prosecution include five major areas: "ecological environment and resource protection", "food and drug safety", "state-owned property protection", "state-owned land use right transfer", and "martial rights and interests protection". According to the relevant laws and regulations of the Environmental Protection Law, the protection of wild animals belongs to the first field of "ecological environment and resource protection". Wildlife protection involves not only the protection of wildlife resources, but also the ecological and environmental security of the area in which it is located. In handling wild animal protection-related cases, the local public interest litigation and procuratorial departments have strengthened communication and cooperation with criminal procuratorial departments, forest police, forest grass, market supervision and other departments, and handled a number of typical cases. These include both incidental civil public interest lawsuits or separate civil lawsuits in criminal cases such as illegal hunting, killing, transportation, sale, and wildlife purchases, as well as inadequate performance or regulatory loopholes in administrative law enforcement for wildlife protection. Supervise procuratorial recommendations in the performance of duties and strengthen supervision. The cases released this time are selected from the wild animal protection cases handled by local procuratorial organs in recent years.
Since last year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration have strengthened communication and collaboration, jointly conducted public interest litigation training courses on biodiversity protection and solid waste pollution prevention, and plan to issue specific collaborative opinions. At the end of 2019, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the European Environmental Protection Association jointly held an international seminar on the judicial protection of biodiversity. Judicial officials, experts and scholars from different countries and environmental protection organizations shared their experience and practices in wildlife protection.
Reporter: Many of these cases are criminal incidental civil interest litigation type cases. What advantages does this way of handling and the effect have compared with the previous pure criminal accountability?
Zhang Xuezheng: Among the cases released this time, three were criminal public interest litigation cases. The clues of related public interest litigation cases are all from criminal cases. The criminal charges involved include the crime of illegal hunting, killing of precious and endangered wildlife, and the illegal purchase, transportation, and sale of precious and endangered wildlife and products. Such criminal acts not only damage the wildlife resources, but also have a great impact on the ecological security of the area where the wildlife involved belongs. In handling related cases, the procuratorial organs pay attention to the connection between criminal prosecution and public interest litigation procuratorial functions. While investigating the criminal responsibility of the actor according to law, it also investigates its civil liability for damage to the public interest of the society, and proposes compensation for losses and alternative repairs. Eco-environment, etc. The convergence of these two functions, one is conducive to saving judicial resources and improving judicial efficiency. The existing criminal evidence provides an important basis for identifying relevant facts and determining the amount of compensation in public interest litigation. The second is to increase the cost of illegal crimes and effectively convert them into ecological restoration funds. For example, in the case of 21 people such as Jintan District People's Procuratorate of Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and Yuan Moumou illegally acquired, sold precious and endangered wild animals and products in a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit, the 88 thousand resource compensation fee paid by the 21 defendants has been included in the district. Financial non-tax account management will be used for ecological environment restoration.
Article 1 of the "Decision" clearly stipulates: "Every country where the Wild Animal Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws prohibit hunting, trading, transportation, and consumption of wild animals must be strictly prohibited. Acts that violate the provisions of the preceding paragraph must be strictly prohibited. Existing laws provide for increased penalties. "The prosecution's initiation of criminal public interest litigations also reflects the judicial orientation of increased penalties. The cases released this time include illegal hunting and killing of wild animals in the upstream of the black industry chain of wild animals, as well as illegal acquisition, transportation, and sale of wild animals and products in the downstream. There is no demand, there is no trading, there is no killing. It is necessary to completely cut off the black animal production chain of interest, so that all offenders involved in destroying wildlife resources and the ecological environment will pay a price.
Reporter: What role does the administrative public interest litigation function play in wildlife protection?
Zhang Xueyu: Wildlife protection and law enforcement is a complex and systematic work involving multiple departments such as natural resources, forestry, agriculture and rural areas, and market supervision. All departments need to work together and work together. Article 6 of the "Decision" clearly requires: "People's governments at all levels and their relevant departments shall improve the law enforcement management system, clarify the main bodies responsible for law enforcement, implement law enforcement management responsibilities, strengthen coordination and cooperation, increase supervision and inspection and accountability, and strictly investigate and punish violations. This decision and related laws and regulations; illegal business sites and illegal operators shall be banned, sealed off or closed according to law. "The cases released this time include three administrative public interest litigation cases, which reflects the administrative public interest litigation in wildlife justice. The advantages of the system in protecting and promoting comprehensive management of administrative organs. Procuratorial organs proactively negotiated and communicated with administrative organs in response to problems such as administrative supervision loopholes or inadequate and inadequate enforcement of laws discovered during the performance of their duties, and made targeted procuratorial suggestions, which has led to the joint development of local wildlife conservation and rectification by multiple departments. At the same time, by reporting the situation to the local party committee government and the National People's Congress CPPCC, it is sought for support to promote the rule of law, standardization and institutionalization of wildlife protection. For example, after receiving the procuratorial suggestions, Yingtan Forestry Bureau of Jiangxi Province launched a special rectification action on the protection of migratory birds and wild animals and plants in the city's forestry system. Taking the opportunity of handling cases, the Mianyang City Procuratorate of Sichuan Province signed the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Network Supervision and Protection of Precious and Endangered Wild Animals (Trial)" with the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Municipal Forestry Bureau Federation to improve the system and mechanism and form a joint effort to combat it.
Reporter: The losses caused by illegal hunting and killing of wild animals are not only the value of the resources of the wild animals themselves, but also the damage to the ecological environment. How does the procuratorate generally determine the amount of compensation and the method of repair when filing a civil public interest lawsuit?
Zhang Xuezhang: As mentioned in Article 2 of the "Decision", "there are important ecological, scientific, and social values". The value of the state's protection of wildlife requires the entire society to further raise awareness. The destruction of ecological resources caused by illegal acts involving wild animals is difficult to estimate only by the value of money. As a result, the calculation of the amount of compensation for ecological damage in public interest litigation cases has often become a technical problem in handling cases, but the procuratorate cannot easily abandon the investigation or determine it at will. Liability. In order to fully and reasonably determine the amount of compensation, the procuratorial organs do their best to provide evidence of ecological damage caused by illegal acts through consulting expert opinions, commissioning appraisals, commissioning evaluations, and hiring expert assistants to appear in court. This not only improves the professional level of case handling, but also guarantees the effect of case handling. Hunan Xiangyin County People's Procuratorate v. Hu Moumou and others for illegally hunting a precious and endangered wild animal Little Swan in a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit. The procuratorate hired a well-known national wildlife expert to appear in court as an expert assistant to hunt the Little Swan. Expert opinion on environmental damage, ecological damage and restoration methods, costs, and protection of ecological and environmental resources. After the verdict came into effect, Hu Moumou and others entrusted the Xiangyin County Forestry Bureau to perform it on their behalf and set up artificial promotion and restoration areas in the buffer zone of Hengling Lake Nature Reserve, planting willow, waterweed, etc. to improve the ecological environment of the little swan habitat.
Reporter: The protection of wild animals requires the support and participation of the whole society. Many offenders lack the relevant awareness of the rule of law. How do procuratorial organs strengthen the promotion of law popularization in handling cases?
Zhang Xueyi: The process of handling cases is also a process of popularizing laws. For wildlife-related violations, the procuratorial organs continue to increase punishment in accordance with the law. On the other hand, every case of wildlife protection and supervision activities is transformed into vivid law-practice practices. , Warn and deter illegal acts involving wildlife, promote the eradication of bad habits of wild animals, strive to raise public awareness of public health and safety, and protection of ecological and environmental resources, and advocate the co-construction of a beautiful homeland where humans and wildlife coexist harmoniously. For example, when the Longquan People's Procuratorate of Zhejiang Province handled the case, in conjunction with the People's Court, the trial venue was set up at the village revitalization seminar in the form of a circuit court. At the same time, representatives of the People's Congress, CPPCC members, people's supervisors, hunters, local Cadres and villagers watched the trial together to expand the effectiveness of case handling. In the case of Jintan District Procuratorate of Jiangsu Province, representatives of the District People's Congress, CPPCC members, relevant personnel of the District Market Supervision Administration, District Catering Association and media reporters were invited to attend the trial. Based on this case, a special feature was produced "Rescue Pangolin Prosecution in Action" The micro-anime is widely publicized to let more people understand the ecological value and dilemma of pangolins and participate in the protection of the "forest guards". The Procuratorate of Wucheng District, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, in response to the lack of awareness of wildlife protection among minors found in the handling of cases, designated public interest litigation departments, non-inspection departments in conjunction with the Municipal Forestry Bureau, and Southwest University of Science and Technology to conduct a publicity seminar on the protection of the rule of law and passed the "Constitutional Law In the form of "going to colleges and universities" and "sending laws into campuses" and other forms of publicity and education on wildlife protection in major, middle, and primary schools in the city, helping minors to establish a good sense of rule of law in ecological civilization.
Article 5 of the "Decision" states: "People's governments at all levels and people's organizations, social organizations, schools, the news media and other aspects of society must actively carry out publicity and education on ecological environment protection and public health safety. Consciously enhance the awareness of ecological protection and public health and safety, change the customs and habits, eliminate the bad habits of overeating wild animals, and develop a scientific, healthy and civilized lifestyle. "We have released these typical cases through the use of case interpretation methods to further increase the popular law on wildlife protection. Publicity and education.
Reporter: Since the outbreak, how did the procuratorial organs strengthen the judicial protection of wildlife in combination with the function of public interest litigation? What's the next work plan?
Zhang Xueyi: In response to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, on January 27, 2020, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Notice on Seriously Implementing the Central Epidemic Prevention and Control Deployment and Resolutely Doing Well the Procuratorate's Epidemic Prevention and Control Work", and filed lawsuits against public welfare during the epidemic The case handling provided specific guidance, requiring the procuratorial organs to improve their political standing, comprehensively, deeply, and accurately learn, understand, and grasp the decision-making arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on epidemic prevention and control, and actively play public interest litigation in serving the overall situation Functions, accurately grasp the clue handling of public interest litigation cases in areas such as wildlife protection, public health and safety that may be associated with the epidemic, strengthen coordination and communication with administrative agencies, and effectively and effectively assist local epidemic prevention and control.
At the same time, the 8th Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate is specifically responsible for public interest litigation and procuratorial work, and has specially assigned a group of clues about illegal wildlife trading cases and guided the relevant provincial procuratorates to list and supervise. Zhejiang Procuratorate and public security, market supervision, agriculture, rural, forestry and other departments jointly deployed source prevention and control, and supervised 10 wild animal protection lawsuits. Hunan Procuratorate supervised 15 public interest lawsuits in the field of wildlife protection.
In the next step, the procuratorial organs will take the opportunity and in-depth implementation of the Decision to make full use of the consensus, synergy and high-pressure situation formed by the epidemic prevention and control to continue to increase the guidance and handling of public welfare lawsuits for wildlife protection, focusing on violations of the " The violations of the Decision, as well as prominent problems such as lax law enforcement and regulatory loopholes, make full use of procuratorial suggestions, file civil public interest litigation including criminal incidental civil public interest litigation, support prosecution, and initiate administrative public interest litigation, and investigate the corresponding criminal liability and Civil liability, urge administrative agencies to strictly supervise, supervise relevant entities to fulfill their social responsibilities, jointly punish and prevent illegal acts, activate wildlife protection mechanisms, adhere to the judicial handling of cases as the center, and take wildlife protection public interest litigation inspections as a long-term governance One of the important safeguard mechanisms is to continuously promote the improvement of relevant legislation, promote the implementation of the wildlife protection list adjustments, detailed supporting regulations, strict non-edible use approval and quarantine inspections proposed in the "Decision", and strive to repair human and wild Animal symbiosis A better environment.