China's top prosecutor issued on Thursday a pilot scheme to institute public interest litigation, focusing on lawsuits for environmental protection and natural resource conservation against government agencies.
Observers hope local prosecutors withstand administrative interference over lawsuits against environmental polluters and irresponsible regulators.
The pilot program, authorized by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Wednesday, will be conducted in 13 provincial regions and will last two years, including Beijing, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Southwest China's Yunnan Province, according to the scheme disclosed by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Prosecutors will be allowed to file a civil lawsuit over any act that compromises public rights and interests by pollution or food and drug safety.
They can also file an administrative lawsuit against abuse of administrative power or nonfeasance in terms of environmental protection, State assets and State land use.
Prosecutors used to dodge major and controversial projects approved by local governments because of pressure from the authorities, choosing less significant cases instead, observers said.
Between 2000 and 2013, fewer than 60 environmental public interest cases were filed, the Economic Information newspaper reported in 2014.
Public interest litigation is fairly new in China. For years plaintiffs have been strictly confined to citizens, corporations and organizations whose interests are directly related to a lawsuit, making prosecutors the only plaintiff to file such lawsuits in many cases.
"The pilot program will better empower the prosecutors to file public interest lawsuits," Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-profit environmental organization, told the Global Times.
In order to save judicial resources, the program requires prosecutors to urge administrative authorities to correct their wrongdoings, or assist governmental and nongovernmental organizations to file the case, before filing their own lawsuit.
However, Xia Jun, an environmental lawyer at All-China Lawyers' Association, warned that "as long as local governments take charge of funding the same-level procuratorates, negotiation will remain between local governments and prosecutors."
