美国环境公民诉讼的起源、构造和功能

Origin, Structure and Function of Environmental Lawsuits of US Citizens

由于行政机关执法不到位,加之传统普通法救济不力,二战后美国环境治理一直收效甚微。1970年《清洁空气法》创设旨在保护环境公共利益的新型诉讼模式即环境公民诉讼,这标志着美国环境治理进入一个崭新的阶段。环境公民诉讼因其设计独特先进,发挥了强大监控功能、良性制衡功能、有效补充功能、强效救济功能和重构功能,从而促使行政机关严格执法和企业认真守法,有力地促进了美国的环境治理。

Due to slack law enforcement of administrative organs and the inefficiency of traditional common law, the United States achieved little in environmental improvement after WWII. The ＂Clean Air Act＂ issued in 1970 created a new form of litigation intended to protect environmental public interest, which signified a new phase of US environmental governance. With unique and advanced designs, the environmental lawsuits of American citizens play a powerful monitoring function, a benign balancing function, an effective complementary function, a strong remedial and restructuring function, which prompts administrative organs to strictly enforce the law, enterprises to obey the law, and therefore pushes forward environmental governance in US.