论预防性检察环境公益诉讼的性质定位

Nature and Positioning of Preventive Procuratorate-filed Environmental Public Interest Litigation

新冠肺炎疫情暴露了法律在预防环境健康风险上的不足,需要检察环境公益诉讼制度发挥预防功能。目前社会组织提起的预防性环境民事公益诉讼具有侵权诉讼的性质,在预防环境损害上面临难以克服的局限性。预防性检察环境公益诉讼不应采用侵权诉讼的构造,而应具有执法诉讼的性质,通过监督和协助行政机关实施预防性环境法律制度来实现预防功能。预防性检察公益诉讼易干扰环境风险行政的正常运行,检察机关应采取主动依法监督、尊重行政判断的监督立场,在监督重点上淡化监管热点、专注监管漏洞,在监督模式上以督促执法为主、代位执法为辅。为强化预防功能且坚守监督定位,检察环境公益诉讼制度应当适当扩展受案范围、多方拓宽案件来源、发挥诉前程序的独立价值、重视起诉条件的约束功能,并通过在短期内修改司法解释、长期内制定专门立法来加以实现。

COVID-19 epidemic exposes the drawback of law in preventing environmental and health risks,which demands the preventive function of procuratorate-filed environmental public interest litigations(EPIL).Current preventive EPILs filed by social organizations are tort litigations by nature,and thus face insurmountable limitations in preventing environmental damages.Procuratorate-filed preventive EPILs should not adopt the nature of enforcement litigations but the structure of tort litigations,performing the preventive function through supervising and assisting environmental risk regulation of administrative agencies.Procuratorate-filed enforcement litigations may disturb the normal operation of risk regulation,therefore procuratorates should stick to the supervisory position,including the supervisory standpoint of active supervision by law and respecting administrative judgement,the supervisory priority of downplaying regulatory hotspots and focusing on regulatory loopholes,as well as the supervisory pattern of promoting enforcement first and replacing enforcement second.To achieve a balance between the preventive function and the supervisory position,procuratorate-filed EPILs should properly expand the scope and sources of cases,as well as stress on the independent value of the pre-lawsuit procedures and the requirements to commence a lawsuit,which could be implemented by revising judicial interpretations in the short term and enacting special legislations in the long term.