Public interest litigation to protect wild animals in action
◆ Combating criminal crimes and paying equal attention to compensation for losses and restoration of ecology
◆ Cutting off the black industry interest chain makes all participants pay the price
◆ Give full play to the role of radiation and focus on protecting wild animals throughout the process
◆ Change criminal or civil thinking to both criminals and citizens to form a joint force
□ Our reporter Liu Ziyang
□ Trainee reporter Zhang Shoukun
"I really regret it, I will never catch a bird by pulling a net again." Regarding what he did in the past, Lian Mou regrets it. Not long ago, the People's Procuratorate of Mingxi County, Sanming City, Fujian Province filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit against 3 illegal hunting and killing of rare and endangered wild animals involving 3 people including Lian. At the stage of court debate, the prosecutor handling the case focused on interpreting the law and reasoning. The three defendants deeply realized that illegal hunting would damage ecological resources and harm the public interest. They all regretted it and said that they would not commit the crime again.
"Two years ago, this type of case was still new. At that time, it was not clear how the value of wild animals was determined and how the procedures for handling cases were connected. Now, handling such public interest litigation cases has become the norm. During the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, We handled 5 similar cases," said Rao Mingji, director of the Second Prosecution Department of the Mingxi County Procuratorate.
In recent years, local procuratorial organs have handled a number of typical public interest litigation cases in the field of wildlife protection. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, procuratorial organs in various regions have increased their efforts in handling wildlife protection cases, fully exerting their procuratorial functions in public interest litigation, making full use of procuratorial recommendations, initiating civil public interest litigation (including criminal incidental civil public interest litigation), supporting prosecution, and bringing Administrative public interest litigation and other methods continue to increase the guidance and handling of public interest litigation cases for wildlife protection.
Tang Weijian, a professor of Law School of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily: "Exploring and expanding public interest litigation in the field of wildlife protection is a practice in the field of public interest litigation, and will definitely have a positive and far-reaching social impact. At present, the illegal purchase, transportation, and sale of wild animals and their products, illegal hunting, and killing of wild animals are still serious problems. Although relevant state agencies have been increasing their efforts to control them, they have been repeatedly prohibited. Therefore, it is necessary to expand wildlife protection methods and adopt It is the right time and imperative to strengthen the protection in the form of public interest litigation."
Focus on compensatory repair
On January 16, the People's Court of Qianjiang District, Chongqing City sentenced the defendant Li Mouchang to 4 months of detention on suspicion of illegal hunting of precious and endangered wild animals. This ordinary criminal case attracted the attention of Xie Wenfei, assistant prosecutor of the Fourth Branch of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Procuratorate.
Xie Wenfei found that in this case, although Li Mouchang had been sentenced, the public interest was not compensated. In response to the problems discovered in this case, the procuratorial organ filed a civil public interest lawsuit in accordance with the law.
"For crimes involving wildlife protection, one cannot just be sentenced. While investigating the perpetrator's criminal responsibility in accordance with the law, he should also be investigated for civil liability for damage to the public interest, and proposed compensation for losses and restoration of the ecological environment in an alternative way. Environmental and other litigation requests." Wu Jun, Director of the Third Prosecution Department of the Fourth Branch of the Chongqing Procuratorate, told reporters.
Clarifying the litigation claims and compensation standards of public interest litigation is the basis for the defendant to assume the responsibility for ecological restoration.
“In a criminal case with civil public interest litigation that was handled not long ago, the procuratorial organs introduced'external brains' to professionally qualified related professional issues regarding the amount of compensation for ecological damage caused by the illegal activities of the three defendants and the methods of restoration of the ecological environment. Experts in the field consulted and discussed. In the end, the compensation amount and repair method were accurately determined." Liu Yuqiao, deputy procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Fuyuan City, Heilongjiang Province, said.
The reporter found that there are many similar attempts.
The Procuratorate of Qinghai Province uses comprehensive methods such as quoting professional institution evaluation reports, normative documents and opinions issued by experts to determine the amount of ecological loss; Nanping City Procuratorate of Fujian commissions an appraisal agency with eco-environmental damage appraisal qualifications to appraise eco-environmental damage ; In a case handled by the People’s Procuratorate of Jiange City, Sichuan Province, the prosecutor determined the amount of compensation after comprehensively considering factors such as maximizing public welfare protection, the defendant being a farmer and having less subjective malice.
Bian Jianlin, Dean of the Institute of Procedural Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said that the prosecution’s initiation of public interest litigation demonstrates the principle of adhering to fighting criminal crimes, compensating losses, and restoring the ecology, and strengthening judicial protection of ecological balance and biodiversity. When preparing to initiate criminal and incidental civil public interest litigation, the procuratorial organ should guide and guide the public security organs to pay attention to the collection of evidence that proves environmental public interest damage, repair costs, and loss of state-owned property. It should also exert its own enthusiasm and initiative, and timely identification is required. Entrusted appraisal or supplementary appraisal.
Strengthen the whole process protection
There is no killing without buying and selling. The reason why crimes involving wild animals continue to be banned repeatedly is mainly because there is a large profit margin for illegal trade and sale of wild animals.
In May of this year, a civil public interest lawsuit filed by the People’s Procuratorate of Qingdao City in Shandong Province on the illegal purchase and sale of rare and endangered wild animals by Song XX and a seafood hotel in Laoshan District opened for trial. The procuratorate believes that although the three defendants are not direct hunters, their illegal activities in the purchase and sale of pangolins have a direct cause and effect relationship with the results of the ecological environment damage, and they should bear joint and several liability.
"In the wildlife protection cases handled in the past, there was a lack of full chain protection of wild animals. To completely cut off the chain of illegal wildlife interests, all illegal actors involved in destroying wildlife resources and the ecological environment must pay the price." Qingdao Liu Lingyun, the second-level prosecutor of the Eighth Procuratorate Department of the Municipal Procuratorate, said that in order to implement the policy of prohibiting wildlife trading and protecting wildlife, public interest litigation expands the scope of the case, not limited to hunting, illegal trading, processing and eating wildlife products. Behaviors to realize the protection of the whole chain of hunting, production, management and consumption of wild animals.
Local procuratorial organs have strengthened the protection of the entire chain of wild animals. The procuratorial agency of Baishan City, Jilin Province has strengthened the source prevention and control and systematic governance of wildlife protection by issuing procuratorial recommendations to strengthen supervision to relevant administrative agencies; the procuratorial agency of Zhangye City, Gansu Province Conduct public interest litigation inspection and supervision in multiple links such as purchase, transportation, breeding, food, inspection and quarantine; Mingxi County, Fujian Province held a joint wildlife protection meeting to supervise market supervision, forest public security and other departments to carry out county market and restaurant inspections.
"In social practice, predation of wild animals often involves a'one-stop' illegal process of catching, transporting, selling, buying, and eating. While procuratorial organs expand the coverage of wild animal public interest litigation, they must also pay attention to the radiation effect of public interest litigation to protect the wild Animals provide full-process protection." Bian Jianlin said.
Tang Weijian believes that the procuratorial organs have rich experience in handling cases and greater professional advantages, and will have a positive and far-reaching social impact on the entire process of combating and protecting wildlife.
Avoid one size fits all
From the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020, the two-level procuratorial organs of Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province discovered during the performance of their duties that merchants in their jurisdictions were openly buying and selling seahorses. The Zhoushan two-level procuratorial organs did not adopt a “one size fits all” approach to shutting down all merchants. Instead, they actively communicated with administrative functional departments, and based on the principle of phased and stable handling, punishment, and education, they investigated and dealt with illegal acts and carried out the rule of law. Publicity.
"We cannot generalize the issue of merchants selling seahorses. During the investigation, we found that a group of merchants involved in the case were selling openly through physical stores, WeChat Moments, online merchant platforms, live broadcast platforms and other channels. Selling seahorses is a traditional understanding of the fishing area and administrative agencies. It is caused by inadequate daily law generalization supervision and lack of legal awareness among merchants. Therefore, when dealing with illegal merchants, the procuratorial agency recommends that administrative law enforcement agencies combine punishment with education." Mi Qing, director of the Fifth Prosecution Department of Zhoushan City People’s Procuratorate, told reporters, In the process of handling public interest litigation cases, procuratorial organs must be good at discovering the problems behind the cases.
Bian Jianlin believes that in order to avoid the “one size fits all” phenomenon in practice, procuratorial organs should introduce and follow the principle of proportionality in public interest litigation. According to the specific circumstances of the case, scientifically evaluate the damage to the environment and ecology caused by illegal and criminal acts, and review the necessity of litigation, the suitability of compensation, and the minimization of the infringement of corporate interests.
In Bian Jianlin's view, the biggest challenge facing public interest litigation is the change of litigation concept. Prosecutors need to change their thinking in handling cases, from one-way criminal or civil thinking to both criminal and civil thinking, and then form a joint force.
Tang Weijian believes that in order to truly solve the problems in public interest litigation, the rule of law should also be strengthened. When revising the wildlife protection law, the content of the public interest litigation initiated by the procuratorial organ for the protection of wildlife should be included, and legal provisions should be used to regulate it. Prior to this, as a transition, the procuratorial organs can initiate judicial interpretation formulation procedures to clarify the responsibilities and division of labor of criminal, civil, administrative and public interest litigation procuratorial departments in the protection of wildlife public interest litigation, and ensure that the "four major prosecutors" simultaneously exert their efforts and work together.