《环境保护法》实施现状及其法典化“升级”

Implementation status of the Environmental Protection Law and its‘upgrade’by codification

在全党全国各族人民迈上全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程之际,对《环境保护法》实施现状进行系统评估具有重大意义。2014年修订《环境保护法》,确立其在生态环境保护领域立法中的综合法地位,宣示立法目的和基本原则,构建统一监管体制和多元共治机制,强化环境执法司法手段,在总结三十多年环境保护法治建设实践基础上体现了“美丽中国”建设新要求。八年来《环境保护法》整体实施成效显著,为生态文明建设和生态环境保护发生历史性、转折性、全局性变化奠定了良好法治基础。在生态文明建设向纵深推进过程中,《环境保护法》立法目的得到有效贯彻,生态环境统一监管体制基本建立,公众参与生态环境治理取得积极成效,以《环境保护法》为龙头的生态环境保护法律体系日趋完善;以多措并举的生态环境执法机制为基础,行政执法措施收效明显,执法改革不断探索创新,《环境保护法》主要制度得到良好执行;随着环境司法专门化专业化体系基本建成,环境公益诉讼制度推进顺利,传统诉讼制度有效发挥生态环境保护功能,《环境保护法》司法适用取得突破性进展。然而施行至今,面对新时代生态文明法治建设的新任务新要求,《环境保护法》存在立法理念、立法思路、法律制度相对滞后,不能完全适应建设“人与自然和谐共生的现代化”新目标等问题,迫切需要通过编纂环境法典方式加以完善,促进其实现从环境保护综合法到环境法典总则的“升级”,为“以中国式现代化推进中华民族伟大复兴”提供“良法”保障。

It is of great significance to systematically assess the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law at a time when China embarks on a new journey towards building a modern socialist country in all respects.In 2014,the Environmental Protection Law was amended to establish its status as a comprehensive law in environmental legislations,to state its legislative purpose and basic prin⁃ciples,to build a unified regulatory system and a pluralistic co-governance mechanism,and to strengthen the administrative and judi⁃cial means for law enforcement.This amendment reflects the new requirements of the‘Beautiful China’initiative based on the practi⁃cal experience of more than 30 years of environmental rule of law.Over the past eight years,the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law has gained remarkable achievements,laying a solid legal foundation for the construction of ecological civilization and the historic,transformative,and overall changes of environmental protection.In the process of further promoting the construction of eco⁃logical civilization,the legislative purpose of the Environmental Protection Law has been effectively implemented,a unified environmen⁃tal regulatory system has been basically established,public participation in environmental governance has made positive progress,and the legal system of ecological and environmental protection led by the Environmental Protection Law has been increasingly improved.Based on a multi-pronged law enforcement mechanism,administrative measures for law enforcement have achieved remarkable results,innovations in the reform of law enforcement continue to be explored,and the main provisions of the Environmental Protection Law have been well enforced.With the completion of a specialized and professional system of environmental justice,environmental public inter⁃est litigation has been smoothly implemented,the traditional litigation system plays an effective role in environmental protection,and breakthroughs have been made in the judicial application of the Environmental Protection Law.Yet so far,facing the new tasks and re⁃quirements of the legal construction of ecological civilization in the new era,the Environmental Protection Law demonstrates relatively lagging legislative concepts,thinking,and systems,which cannot fully adapt to the new goal of a‘modernization of harmony between hu⁃manity and nature.’It is urgent to improve the Environmental Protection Law by environmental codification,that is,to upgrade it from a comprehensive environmental law to the General Part of the Environmental Code,so as to provide‘good laws’for‘promoting national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernization’.