US-China Partnership for Environmental Law

Conference on the Role of Prosecutors in Civil and Criminal Environmental Law Enforcement

May 9-10 & 14, 2010 - Beijing & Guangzhou, China
USAID, DOJ, and EPA assist China's Supreme People's Procuratorate and Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate in identifying opportunities for enhancing their criminal and civil environmental enforcement role. 

Low levels of enforcement of environmental laws, including lack of involvement by government prosecutors in environmental enforcement, remain among the key environmental governance challenges in China. In order to enhance prosecutorial participation in enforcement, USAID's US-China Partnership for Environmental Law co-hosted workshops at the National Prosecutors College in Beijing on May 11-12, 2010 and at the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate on May 14, 2010 to identify opportunities to enhance civil and criminal enforcement. Both events demonstrated best practices, explored legal ambiguities, and explained institutional impediments, and identified potential solutions, which officials will consider in the future formulation of policies in this regard.

The Beijing workshops brought together senior officials from the US Department of Justice Environment Division, US EPA, and prosecutors from China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and prosecutors from various local and provincial jurisdictions, NGO representatives, and leading environmental law scholars to share best practices and experiences. Participants included Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Dreher, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Patrice Simms, EPA Region 8 Counsel Robert Ward, Beijing USAID Representative Jennifer Adams, Vice President of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Sun Qian, Dean of National Prosecutors College Shi Shaoxia, Deputy Director of the Supreme People's Court's Research Office, and Deputy Director of the Ministry of Environmental Protection Policy and Regulation Division Bie Tao. The Guangzhou workshop included the American officials and the Deputy Chief Procurator of Guangzhou City as well as section deputy directors.

Chinese media coverage: Procuratorial Daily, China Environment News 

Conference on Public Interest Litigation and Standing Issues Related to Water Pollution in Southern China 

May 13, 2009 - Guangzhou, China
USAID and DOJ assisted the Guangzhou Maritime Court in Developing Public Interest Litigation Policies Related to Water Pollution Cases. China's severe water pollution problems have posed some of the most serious environmental governance challenges. While there has been some important innovation and cutting-edge efforts to use environmental public interest litigation cases has been successful in some provinces, including in Guangdong province, uncertainty about the standing of NGOs and the procuratorate to bring such cases, the measurement of damages, litigation fees, and other procedural issues in the courts remain significant impediments to an increased role in solving water pollution issues. A May 13, 2010 workshop at the Guangzhou Maritime Court, co-sponsored by USAID's US-China Partnership for Environmental Law with the Marine Transportation and Maritime Law Committee of China, helped China's judges, prosecutors, and lawyers formulate potential new rules to guide public interest litigation in water pollution cases. 

Participants included in the workshop included senior officials from the US Department of Justice Environment Division (DAAGs Dreher and Simms) , US EPA, judges from the Guangzhou Maritime Court (including the President of the Maritime Court), the Supreme People's Court, the Kunming Environmental Court, and other provincial courts, as well as leading environmental law scholars.

Environmental Law Clinics in China Project

December 9 & 12, 2009 - Beijing & Guangzhou, China
The Environmental Law Clinics in China Project, sponsored by USAID and Vermont Law School, is designed to assist in the development and promotion of clinical legal education in China. Clinical legal education is critical to training future environmental problem solvers and strengthening China's environmental bar. Law clinics can also provide needed legal services to marginalized people and be a pragmatic tool that help enforce China's laws. However, clinical legal education in China faces many barriers. This report draws on workshops held in China regarding the status of law clinics in China and provides insight into the challenges facing law clinics in China, as well as proposals for dealing with them.

Download the Environmental Law Clinics in China Project: Workshop report 1

USAID and Vermont Law School Support CLAPV's the 10th Anniversary Conference on Environmental Litigation and Legal Aid

November 7-8, 2009 - Beijing, China

The Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV), China's premier environmental legal NGO, hosted a conference on environmental legal aid and litigation to highlight ten-years of its environmental hotline and work. CLAPV's founder, Wang Canfa, pioneered the use of environmental litigation in China to stop polluters and win compensation for victims. A large and diverse crowd attended the conference's opening ceremony. Over 300 lawyers, NGO leaders, professors and government employees attended. Nine panels on different facets of public interest environmental law were offered to participants.

USAID and Vermont Law School Support the Second Annual Conference of the Environmental Law Branch of the China Society for Environmental Sciences

October 18, 2009 - Beijing, China

On October 17-18, 2009, the US-China Partnership for Environmental Law co-sponsored the second annual conference of the Environmental Law Branch of the China Society for Environmental Sciences (CSES) in Beijing along with Peking University Law School. The two-day event culminated in awards recognizing the top ten papers and books from environmental law scholars around the country, covering such topics as citizens' environmental rights under civil law, the protection of Western China's ecology, remedies for ecological damage, and the role of property law in environmental protection. Professor Zhiping Li from Sun Yat-sen University School of Law, an implementing partner of this program, won an award for her paper on public interest litigation by European environmental NGOs. The conference and awards help to institutionalize a domestic system for the pursuit and recognition of sophistication and excellence in environmental policy analysis and research in China.

USAID and EPA Roundtable Engage Chinese Central Government Officials on Environmental Litigation and Role of Environmental Courts

October 15, 2009 - Beijing, China

The US-China Partnership for Environmental Law led a roundtable in Beijing with the Environmental Appeals Board of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), represenatives from China's Supreme People's Court, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, and the China University of Political Science and Law. Over the past year, China has focused on the creation of environmental courts as a response to serious pollution issues. However, the design and operation of these courts to effectively administer their specialized jurisdiction and case load have remained a challenge to their effectiveness. The workshop shared the experience of EPA's Environmental Appeals Board and opportunities for assistance to their Chinese counterparts. This roundtable discussion followed other workshops by the Partnership in May and July 2009 focusing on environmental courts issues.

Carl Yirka, Director of the Cornell Library at VLS, Organized Two Workshops for Law Librarians

June 2 & 5, 2009 - Guangzhou and Beijing, China

Professor Yirka organized and led workshops on environmental materials and law libraries on June 2nd at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing and a similar workshop on June 5th at Sun Yat sen University Law School in Guangzhou. The goal of the workshops was to provide Chinese librarians and scholars with knowledge of the highest quality English language environmental law materials available by subscription and for free on the Internet and to discuss other matters of joint interest. Nineteen librarians and faculty from China University of Political Science (Beijing), Tsinghua University Law School (Beijing), Huadong University of Political Science and Law (Shanghai), Sun Yat sen Law School (Guangzhou) and South China University of Technology Law School (Guangzhou) participated. These two workshops will benefit not only those in attendance; participating scholars and librarians were provided with materials that they can use as teaching aids for their faculty colleagues and law students.

Environmental Courts and Litigation Workshops

May 19, 2009 - Guangzhou, China & May 22-23, 2009 - Beijing, China

We held a set of workshops focused on environmental courts and litigation in Guangzhou and Beijing. The workshops were focused on sharing the experiences of environmental court judges in Vermont, Australia, and the Philippines with judges in China. The foreign courts were represented by Judge Maria Cecilia I. Austria of Batangas city court (Philippines), Justice Brian Preston of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court (Australia), and Judge Merideth Wright of the Vermont Environmental Court (USA).

In Guangzhou, the workshop was organized by the Guangdong Judges Association and Sun Yat-sen University Law School together with VLS and focused on options for enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of Guangdong judges at all levels to handle environmental litigation. In addition to the foreign judges, other presenters included Vice President of the Guangdong Judges Association Tan Ling (also Vice President of the Guangdong People's High Court) who presided over the workshop, Vice President of the Guangzhou Maritime Court Zhan Simin, Section Chief Zheng Zewen of the Policies and Regulation Department of the Guangzhou Environmental Protection Bureau, and Professor Zhiping Li of Sun Yat-sen University Law School. The audience of the workshop included both judges from the Guangdong People's High Court, the various Intermediate People's Courts of Guangzhou City, Foshan City, Jiangmen City, and Dongguan City, as well as environmental law scholars and students from Guangzhou.

In Beijing, the workshop was co-sponsored by the National Judges College and the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims of the China University of Political Science and Law together with VLS. In addition to considering environmental litigation issues generally, the Beijing workshop also focused on issues and options for enhancing the effectiveness of newly created environmental courts in Kunming City (Yunnan Province), Guiyang City (Guizhou Province), and Wuxi City (Jiangsu Province). The three foreign judges presented their experiences and raised options for addressing some of the challenges of the three new environmental courts. Presenters on the three Chinese environmental courts were Judge Zeng Zhen of the Guiyang court, Judge Yuan Xuehong of the Kunming court, and Judge Zhao Weimin of the Wuxi court. Other workshop participants included Dean Huai Xiaofeng of the National Judges College, Vice Director Wang Suli of the Law and Policy Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Director Guan Yi of the International Cooperation Department of the National Judges College, Judge Guan Li of the Supreme People's Court, and judges of the National Judges College and scholars and students of CUPL.

Environmental Governance Roundtable

May 13, 2009 - Guangzhou, China

The US-China Partnership led a roundtable on environmental governance at SYSU together with SYSU Law School and the Institute for Sustainable Communities. The workshop included presentations by Jingjing Liu about the VLS-SYSU Partnership, an overview by Prof. Zhiping Li about SYSU's environmental law program with a focus on the positive impacts of USAID funding on capacity enhancements at SYSU, and a presentation by Prof. Dejin Gu on Chinese environmental NGOs and the challenges of environmental information and relevant legal tools to effectively participate in environmental decision-making. Finally, Laura Ediger addressed issues of corporate environmental responsibility with a focus on the implementation of China's environmental information disclosure act.