美国私人检察诉讼演变及其对我国的启示

The Evolution of American Private Prosecution Litigation and Its Enlightenment to China

公民诉讼是美国公益诉讼的重要形态。作为公民诉讼的理论基础,私人检察理论对美国环境和民权等领域的公益保护意义重大。私人检察诉讼在美国经历了由发端到兴起,再到受限的漫长演变过程。这一历程揭示了公益诉讼制度发展的一些基本规律:公益诉讼制度建构必须兼顾政治性与法律性的要求;私人谋利动机不能成为公益诉讼稳定的推动力量;应确立政府执法优先辅以公民诉讼的公益保障机制。我国公益诉讼制度虽应借鉴他国有益经验,但更应重视和挖掘自身独特的政治制度与法制传统。唯有如此,方能建构起符合我国国情的公益诉讼制度。

Citizen suit is a significant form of American public interest litigation. As the theoretical basis for citizen suit, the private prosecution theory plays a significant role in protecting American environment, civil rights, and other fields. American private prosecution litigation has experienced a long process of evolution from generation to prosperity and then to be restrained. This process reveals some basic rules of the development of public interest litigation system： The construction of public interest litigation system must take into account the political and legal requirements. Private benefit motives can not become a stable driving force of public interest litigation. Public interest protection mechanism should be established by making the government law enforcement priority to assist citizen suit. Although the public interest litigation system in our country should learn from the beneficial experience of other countries, we should pay more attention to our own unique political system and legal tradition. Only in this way can we establish a public interest litigation system in accordance with China＇s national condition.