The Substantial Analysis of Civil Public Interest Litigation

Abstract

The current civil public interest litigation system is based on Article 58 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China as the backbone with expansions of the public interest protection fields in specific laws. It overall focuses on the qualification of the subject of the litigation and the public interest protection fields, and neglects the establishment of substantive rules. In practice, the environmental civil public interest litigation would refer to the substantive rules applicable to the ecological and environmental damage compensation system, while other civil public interest litigations would refer to the substantive rules of tort liability under private law. The governance and non-litigation nature of civil public interest litigation cannot deny the application of the underlying logic of the right to claim. The legislation on public interest litigation should take into account both procedure and substance. Based on clarifying the governance authority of the procuratorial organs for the protection of public interest, the legislation on public interest litigation should provide for the interests of action in civil public interest litigation, the scope of claims, the justifiability of punitive damages, the allocation of the burden of proof, and other issues closely related to the substance.

Keywords

civil public interest litigation (CPIL) / basis of claim / litigation claim / burden of proof

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