公益诉讼提升了城市的环境治理绩效吗?-基于287个地级市微观数据的实证研究

Does Public Interest Litigation Promote the Performance of Urban Environmental Governance? An Empirical Study Based on Micro-data of 287 Prefecture-level Cities

环境行政与环境司法的有效联动可以推动行政执法效率和环境污染治理能力的提升。文章利用检察公益诉讼制度这一准自然实验,运用我国287个地级市2010-2018年的面板数据,实证检验该项制度的污染减排效应。研究发现,检察公益诉讼制度有效地减少了工业废水和工业二氧化硫的排放量,提升了城市环境治理绩效,其主要作用机制在于通过检察机关环境督政、司法与行政联动以及提升公民环境治理参与度等方面推动城市环境污染治理。检察公益诉讼制度在环保重点城市和中部地区城市的实施效果更好。基于此,文章认为我们应该从构建行政-司法多元主体生态共治体系,构建检察机关与社会公众和环保组织的沟通协作机制等方面强化环境行政与环境司法的联动,推动地区环境污染治理能力的提升。

In the context of the"new normal"of China’s economy,serious environmental pollution is hindering the high-quality development of China’s economy.Environmental governance is inseparable from the protection of the rule of law,but in China’s traditional environmental governance,the administrative department and the judicial department perform their respective duties,which easily leads to environmental pollution governance as a mere formality.Promoting the effective linkage of environmental administration and environmental justice is the inherent requirement of improving the ecological environment and promoting the green and high-quality development of economy.Based on the data of 287 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2018,this paper uses the multi-period DID method to empirically test the pollution emission reduction effect of the public interest litigation system by procuratorate.First of all,we test the impact of the public interest litigation system by procuratorate on industrial emissions as a whole.The numbers of civil,administrative and criminal incidental civil cases are chosen as the dependent variables to test the implementation of the system.Secondly,we use the mediation effect model to explore the internal mechanism of the public interest litigation system by procuratorate to improve the performance of urban environmental governance.Thirdly,we test the heterogeneity of all prefecture-level cities.Finally,the parallel trend test and the placebo test are used to test the robustness of the results.The findings are as follows:Firstly,the public interest litigation system by procuratorate can effectively reduce the emissions of industrial pollutants and improve the performance of urban environmental governance.Secondly,its main mechanism is to promote the governance of urban environmental pollution through environmental supervision of procuratorial organs,judicial and administrative linkage,and enhancing the participation of citizens in environmental governance.Thirdly,the public interest litigation system by procuratorate has a better emission reduction effect in the central region.At the same time,the system has a good implementation effect in key environmental protection cities.Based on the above,this paper believes that we should strengthen the linkage between environmental administration and environmental justice from the construction of the ecological co-governance system of multiple administrative and judicial subjects,and the construction of the communication and cooperation mechanism between procuratorial organs,the public and environmental protection organizations.