Critique on the Application of Punitive Damages in Ecological and Environmental Damage

In recent years, China has vigorously advocated for the construction of an ecological civilization and the protection of the ecological environment, proposing to “protect the ecological environment with the strictest system and the most rigorous rule of law.” Guided by this significant policy, Article 1232 of the Civil Code stipulates the punitive compensation system in the field of environmental torts. To guide the specific application of this article in judicial practice, the Supreme People's Court subsequently issued the “Interpretation on the Application of Punitive Compensation in Adjudicating Ecological and Environmental Tort Disputes.” Article 12 of the Interpretation explicitly grants state-specified organs or legally defined organizations the right to request punitive compensation on behalf of the infringed party. This provision effectively recognizes that pure ecological environmental damage, like environmental torts, is also subject to the punitive compensation system. In fact, before the Supreme Court issued the aforementioned judicial interpretation, there were already cases in judicial practice where punitive compensation was applied in environmental civil public interest lawsuits and criminal ancillary civil public interest lawsuits. In other words, before the relevant authorities clarified the scope of the “infringed party”, local courts assumed that the normative content of Article 1232 of the Civil Code covered pure ecological environmental damages beyond personal and property damages. Nevertheless, these courts' judgements applying punitive compensation in environmental civil public interest lawsuits aimed at remedying ecological environmental damages lacked clear, well-organized, and convincing interpretations and rationales. Contrary to the direct acknowledgment by practitioners that ecological environmental damage can be subject to punitive compensation, the environmental law theoretical community in China is deeply divided over whether punitive compensation can be applied to pure ecological environmental damage. Based on a rough review of current academic views, this paper, taking the conceptual connotations of “environmental tort” as its theoretical starting point and focusing on jurisprudential foundations, normative interpretations, legislative systems, and institutional logic rather than practical cases and problem orientation, delves into the distinctions between environmental civil public interest lawsuits and environmental private interest lawsuits, the relevant provisions of China's Civil Code, the current legal responsibility system for the environment, and the function of the punitive compensation system. It logically and theoretically demonstrates the exclusion of punitive compensation's applicability in the field of ecological environmental damage, based on a close examination and analysis of relevant jurisprudence, regulations, responsibilities, and systems.