| Abstract: | The scope of case acceptance of the environmental administrative public interest litigation brought by the procuratorate is a difficult problem both in theory and in practice. Three core elements of the scope of case acceptance are involoved: the type of the subject prosecuted, the type of the behavior prosecuted, and the type of the benefit to be remedied by the action. Case analysis of the public interest litigations brought by the procuratorate and theoretical comparison show that the type of defendant of the environmental administrative public interest litigation brought by the procuratorate shall be limited to the functional departments, who have supervisory and administrative responsibilities in the field of environmental, ecological and natural resources protection, under the State Council or the local governments at various levels. The number of defendant can be one or more than two co-defendants, but the majority of the cases of co-defendants belong to the type of ordinary co-defendants. The defendant's action may be an administrative omission in the field of environmental protection, or an illegal exercise of administrative duty. The interests of such litigation should mainly aim at the environmental public interest. Environmental public interests are different from the national interests arising from the ownership of the state-owned natural resources. |
