Rachel E. Stern, Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence

Excerpt

China’s environmental challenges have been well documented, along with the deficiencies of the enforcement of environmental regulations. The legal foundations of environmental protection in most democracies have led to the courts becoming a crucial arm in environmental enforcement. In an authoritarian state, where courts may threaten government interest, there may be little room for real legal challenges to occur. Yet Stern identifies civil environmental lawsuits as “a sliver of political opening,” hitting the sweet spot between cases that are unequivocally forbidden by the state and cases that are relatively uncontroversial. It is here in this murky middle ground where environmental battles are being fought, citizens are testing the boundaries of their authoritarian society, judges are cautiously innovating at the margins, and public interest lawyers are treading new ground as “heroes” and “troublemakers,” that Stern argues we can truly come to understand how the Chinese leadership is balancing the benefits of legal institutions with political control. …