The Latest Developments of China’s Legislation on Ecological and Environmental Tort -From the Civil Code to the Ecological and Environmental Code-

The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China has improved the rules on ecological and environmental torts, expanded the scope of liability for environmental torts, increased the liability for torts that damage the ecology, and also added a punitive compensation system for ecological and environmental torts, clarified the system of compensation for ecological and environmental damage, and clarified the subject of the right to claim compensation for ecological and environmental damage and the scope of compensation. Since then, the Supreme People's Court has promulgated many judicial interpretations to improve specific rules such as those concerning punitive damages, scope of tortious acts in ecological and environmental tort, multiple torts, the third-party governance, a third-party’s fault, evidence rules and liability for ecological and environment damage. At present, in the process of compiling the Ecological and Environmental Code, there has been no large-scale revision of specific rules in the field of ecological and environmental tort, but how to position specific rules in the context of codification is the main issue at present. At the same time, the problems exposed by punitive damages in the application process also need to be further resolved in the future.