论我国环境民事公益诉讼的证明责任

On the Burden of Proof of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation in China

环境民事公益诉讼制度在我国正在不断发展与完善,其原告具有法定性,目的为维护环境公共利益,可以协助与补充国家机关执法,能够有效预防环境污染和损害。从我国有关环境诉讼的法律规定来看,与环境民事私益诉讼相比,环境民事公益诉讼的证明责任有其特殊之处,尤其是因果关系方面难以用举证责任倒置简单归纳,司法实践中应采“合理转移说”更为合理。通过考察普通法系和大陆法系各个国家的法律实践,结合我国环境民事公益诉讼法律体系的发展现状,我国环境民事公益诉讼证明责任可以从将环境污染推定为损害行为、不过分追求损害事实的证明、因果关系证明责任合理转移三个方面进行优化。

The environmental civil public interest litigation system is constantly improving and developing in Our country. The plaintiff has the legal character, with the purpose of maintaining the environmental public interests, assisting and supplementing the law enforcement of the state organs, and effectively preventing environmental pollution and damage. From the perspective of China’s relevant laws and regulations on environmental litigation, compared with environmental civil private interest litigation, the burden of proof in public interest litigation has its special features, especially in the aspect of causality, it is difficult to simply summarize by reversing the burden of proof, and the "reasonable transfer theory" should be adopted in judicial practice.Based on the investigation of the legal practice in the common law system and the civil law system, combined with the development status of China’s environmental civil public interest litigation legal system, the burden of proof in environmental civil public interest litigation in China can be optimized from following three aspects: presumption of environmental pollution as an act of damage, not excessive pursuit of proof of damage facts, and reasonable transfer of the burden of proof of causality.