检察机关提起环境民事公益诉讼法律地位之省思

Reflection on Qualification of Procuratorial Organs to File Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

检察机关在环境公益诉讼中的法律地位仁者见仁、智者见智。"公益诉讼起诉人"的角色定位契合检察机关兼具法律监督者与原告的双重身份,但导致在环境民事公益诉讼中配置给检察机关的诉讼权利义务与被告既不相同、也不对等,因而与民事诉讼当事人平等原则相冲突。在现行制度框架下,只有跳出部门利益的窠臼,重新审视环境公益诉讼整体制度设计,采取社会组织主导提起环境民事公益诉讼、检察机关优先选择环境行政公益诉讼的双向调适方式,并完善环境行政公益诉讼中检察机关与环保执法机构的衔接机制,回归监督本位才能从根本上化解制度性冲突。

There are different opinions on the legal status of procuratorial organs in environmental public interest litigation. The role orientation of "public interest litigation prosecutor" is in line with the dual status of both legal supervisor and plaintiff of procuratorial organs. However, the litigation rights and obligations allocated to procuratorial organs in environmental civil public interest litigation are neither the same nor reciprocal as those of defendants, and thus conflict with the principle of equality of parties in civil litigation. Under the current system framework,we should step out of the trap of departmental interests, re-examine the overall system design of environmental public interest litigation, adopt the two-way adjustment mode of social organizations in which social organizations take the lead in instituting environmental civil public interest litigation and procuratorial organs give priority to environmental administrative public interest litigation, improve the connection mechanism between procuratorial organs and environmental law enforcement organs in environmental administrative public interest litigation, and return to the supervision standard.Only in these ways can institutional conflicts be fundamentally resolved.