外国环境司法专门化的经验及挑战

Experiences and Challenges from the Specialization of Environmental Tribunals of Foreign Countries

20世纪70年代后期,各国环境司法出现一个新趋势,即环境司法专门化,环境案件被集中于专门的环境审判机构审理。这种纠纷处理模式的建立伴随着环境案件管辖权、环境纠纷审理规则、审判人员组成和知识结构、纠纷处理方式以及案件管理方式等的调整和创新。环境司法专门化有力促进了环境法的司法化,也促进了环境法理论和实践的发展。但是环境司法专门化也面临许多困难及挑战,环境法庭并不是环境纠纷解决的唯一场所,也未必是最好的场所,各国应该根据自身的实际情况确定是否建立环境法庭及其运作规则。

One trend in environmental dispute resolution since late 1970s is the emerging of specialized environmental courts. Environmental court exercises exclusive jurisdiction for environmental cases in a designated areas. Establishment of environmental judge, the ways of of this type of environmental dispute resolution is accompanying with adjustment and reformation dispute jurisdiction, environmental dispute resolution procedure rule, knowledge structure of dispute resolution and case management, etc.. Specialization of environmental tribunals has enhanced the accessibility of environmental judiciary and development of environmental legal theory and practice in large extent. But it also faces a lot of difficulties and challenges. Therefore, environmental court is not necessary the only one or the best forum to deal with environmental cases, it depends on the realistic situation of each country to select this option or not.