China's New Environmental Courts

The Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley presents a discussion of China's new environmental law and justice system

Speaker: Rachel Stern, Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science, UC Berkeley

China boasts ninety-five environmental courts set up between 2007 and 2012, a trend that promises to re-shape environmental law. What accounts for the sudden entry of specialized courts onto the regulatory landscape? And now that the earliest courts have more than half a decade behind them, what have they accomplished?

China’s new environmental courts are best seen an appealing, low-cost way for local leaders to signal commitment to environmental protection as well as a forum to defuse potentially explosive disputes. They symbolize the increasing importance China’s leaders place on environmental protection, while also offering welcome flexibility. Courts can accept cases when disputes are rising and still turn away cases when local power holders are involved and caution appears prudent.

So far, the courts’ environmental track record is weak. Despite a few high profile moments of innovation, most environmental courts are struggling to find enough cases to survive. Nor are the few busy courts necessarily addressing the most pressing environmental problems. A closer look at the docket of a court in Guiyang, for example, shows a preponderance of criminal cases brought against peasants for accidental fire setting and illegal logging—crackdowns against the powerless, rather than more ambitious attempts to hold polluters accountable.