Tianjin courts actively promote environmental capital trials
Accelerate the specialization of trial organization and establish new professional courts for environmental resources in six grassroots courts; flexibly use various methods such as deadline performance, labor compensation, and introduction of third-party governance to ensure the effective implementation of ecological environment restoration responsibilities; Promote the establishment of Tianjin Biodiversity Judicial Ecological Restoration Base, and carry out reeds to the sea and beach, and ecological restoration of estuaries and bays according to local conditions... Recently, Tianjin City Higher People's Court recently held a press conference on environmental resources trial and released the "Tianjin Court Environmental Resources Trial White Paper (January 2023-July 2024)" and typical cases of environmental resources trials.
It is reported that since 2023, the city's courts have tried 5962 environmental resource cases of various types in accordance with the law, continued to innovate judicial measures, strengthened coordination and linkage with procuratorial organs and administrative agencies, strengthened the effective connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, and actively built a diversified resolution mechanism for environmental resource disputes.
Continue to innovate judicial initiatives
The Tianjin Court upholds the new development concept, accurately grasps the harmonious coexistence of economic development, people's livelihood security and environmental protection, actively leads the trend of green transformation, and injects judicial momentum into the construction of beautiful Tianjin. The court system has deepened the implementation of the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Environmental Resources Trial Cooperation Framework Agreement" and strengthened regional judicial cooperation by signing a number of memorandums and agreements, such as the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Ecological Environment Judicial Protection Cooperation Memorandum" and the "Yanshan Ecological Environment Judicial Protection Cooperation Framework Agreement". Judicial linkage to jointly build ecological security barriers. Especially for key areas such as the Grand Canal and Yanshan, we will implement systematic judicial protection strategies to ensure the dual prosperity of natural heritage and cultural ecology.
The city's courts strictly follow the principle of liability for damage, severely crack down on environmental violations, increase the cost of violations through public interest litigation and ecological and environmental damage compensation litigation, and encourage enterprises to transform green. At the same time, the court not only punishes pollution, but also assists industrial upgrading, promotes the intelligent and clean transformation of traditional industries, promotes the disclosure of environmental information, builds a corporate environmental responsibility system, and jointly shapes a green, low-carbon, and efficient industrial structure.
The Ninghe District Court took the lead in setting an example and promoting the establishment of a judicial ecological restoration base for biodiversity, focusing on wetland protection and restoration of migratory bird habitats, and implementing projects such as returning reeds to the sea and ecological restoration to restore the original appearance of the natural ecology. At the same time, we will build a wetland resource monitoring system, strengthen infrastructure, and create bird-friendly habitats to set a model for biodiversity protection in the Qilihai wetland. This move is not only a practical exploration of restorative justice, but also a vivid demonstration of social governance innovation, demonstrating the positive role of justice in the construction of ecological civilization.
Continuously improve the construction of a special environmental resource system
Environmental resources trial work spans the two major areas of environment and resources. Its complexity lies in the interweaving of legal relationships and competing responsibilities, requiring unique trial concepts and adjudication rules. Tianjin courts have actively deepened the reform of environmental resources trials, built a more complete adjudication system and ecological and environmental protection litigation network, and the professional trial system has become increasingly mature.
The city's courts focused on professional construction and reshaped the trial organizational structure. The First Civil Court of the Municipal High Court took the lead in setting up an environmental resources trial court and reorganizing the professional team. Intermediate and some grassroots courts followed closely, setting up specialized agencies and teams to optimize resource allocation and strengthen judicial power. In particular, six district courts including Xiqing have innovated the "1+1+1" model for specific ecological areas, that is, one grassroots court and one professional court have centralized jurisdiction, and direct guidance from superiors to achieve efficient and centralized processing of environmental resource cases.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei courts collaborated to hold seminars on environmental resource problems to simultaneously promote trial professionalism and improve judges 'literacy. The Municipal High Court deepens the research on adjudication rules, continuously publishes typical cases, strengthens business guidance, and conducts research on cutting-edge topics such as the judicial application of green clauses in the Civil Code to promote the deep integration of theory and practice.
Adhering to the concept of restorative justice, Tianjin courts flexibly adopt restoration methods such as time-limited performance, labor compensation, and third-party governance, and innovatively introduce execution methods such as replanting orders and stocking orders. In an air pollution public interest lawsuit, the court pioneered the use of charitable trusts and carbon sink subscriptions to achieve ecological alternative restoration. The carbon sink transaction volume exceeded one million, which not only innovated the ecological compensation mechanism, but also promoted the realization of the "double carbon" goal. Balancing with regional carbon emissions. In addition, the Municipal High Court has cooperated with multiple departments to improve the mechanism for the protection of confiscated wild animals and plants to ensure that the follow-up handling of cases is more scientific and standardized.
Build a diversified co-governance pattern
As a complex and systematic project, ecological and environmental protection is actively integrated into the modern environmental governance pattern, with trials as the core, taking the initiative, continuously deepening cross-department and cross-regional collaboration, accelerating the construction of diversified conflict resolution mechanisms, and strengthening environmental protection and legal publicity, initially outlining a blueprint for ecological governance with diverse and co-governance.
The public security prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei joined hands to sign the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Environmental Crime Governance Framework Agreement" to strengthen environmental security protection, crime crackdown and high-quality development services for the Haihe River Basin, demonstrating a new level of coordinated regional governance. The Tianjin Court jointly issued the "Measures for Ecological and Environmental Protection" with multiple departments to clarify the division of responsibilities, strengthen linkage and collaboration, and jointly build a solid defense line for ecological governance. At the same time, the Tianjin Maritime Court and the procuratorate signed judicial cooperation opinions to focus on the protection of marine resources and improve the effectiveness of judicial cooperation.
In order to deepen source governance, Tianjin courts practice the "Maple Bridge Experience", focus on the substantive resolution of environmental resource disputes, and promote the resolution of conflicts and disputes from the source. The Municipal High Court makes judicial suggestions to the competent authorities on issues in ecological and environmental damage compensation cases to promote the standardization of law enforcement. The Railway Transport Court and the Ecological Environment Bureau signed a memorandum of cooperation, clarifying 13 measures to strengthen the prevention and resolution of administrative disputes and achieve precise and efficient ecological governance. The Baodi District Court used the government-court joint meeting to promote the transformation of ecological and environmental protection from case handling to source prevention and solve environmental protection problems.
In addition, Tianjin courts actively responded to the call for "public participation" in the Environmental Protection Law, integrating professional trials and public power, enhancing people's awareness of environmental protection, and ensuring the public's right to know, participate, and supervise in environmental justice. By popularizing the "green principle" of the Civil Code, using circuit trials, shared courts and other forms to widely disseminate environmental protection concepts and achieve the effect of "hearing one case, educating one area", the concept of ecological civilization will be deeply rooted in the hearts of thousands of households and corporate campuses., jointly draw a new chapter in green development.
