Environmental pollution: corporate crime and cancer mortality

Corporate crime remains more costly and arguably more harmful than street crime and such harms include environmental, air, and water pollution resulting in increasing cancer mortality rates around the globe. More importantly, these corporate crimes are global in nature and facilitated by transnational corporations’ capture of the USA Environmental Protection Agency.     

Oil Spill Causation and the Deepwater Horizon Spill

The April 20, 2010, BP Deepwater Horizon blowout riveted citizen and elected officials' attention on coastal oil spills in ways not seen since the ill‐fated 1989 Exxon Valdez crisis. A commonly voiced lament included why was the tragedy not prevented? Why the seemingly poor safety practices and who is to blame? Could a spill of such catastrophic proportion happen elsewhere in the future? Applying a spill prevention causation framework developed through the examination of other major near‐shore incidents over a 23‐year period, the author finds Deepwater Horizon exhibited a pattern of shortcomings evident in these other spills. These shortcomings are rooted in policy imperfections, a weak regulatory regime, organizational deviance in lieu of integrity, and interorganizational structure deficiencies.     

Policy Alternatives in Adaptive Communities: Simulating the Environmental Justice Consequences of Hazardous Site Remediation Strategies

Many governments have implemented environmental justice mandates requiring agencies to consider the implications of cleanup decisions for poor and/or minority populations. To the extent that this mandate alters decisions, it usually does so by considering the composition of a community in the present without adjusting for potential demographic changes that may occur over time. However, communities change and these changes are likely to affect how well an agency meets its environmental justice mandate over the long term. In this research, an agent‐based model is introduced to simulate how alternative environmental remediation scenarios may affect environmental justice outcomes in a dynamic residential environment with two demographic classes with preferences for living in proximity to neighbors similar to themselves. Under these circumstances, there is unlikely to be one best strategy to achieve both environmental improvement and environmental equity, and a focus on valuable land is the least effective over the long run.     

从威权管制到社会治理——关于修订《大气污染防治法》的几点思考

我国《大气污染防治法》的修订正在进行之中,大气污染防治法的修订,仍存在一些有待解决的重大问题。除了基于气候变化问题对二氧化碳的规制作出回应,以及结合我国大气污染现状提出大气污染防治应引入分区管理制度外,现行《大气污染防治法》仍然呈现出以政府为主体,以污染企业为规制对象的单一化威权体制特征,其法律实施效果不佳,也不符合现代社会自我管制与和谐发展的要求。为此,需要加强市场激励机制的作用,为社会自我管制和公众参与提供条件,并基于行政责任和民事责任动因的不同,改变目前法律责任规定中重行政责任轻民事责任的现状。     

水域污染损害有关监测及评估鉴定问题

针对油污对海洋环境造成的生态损害和渔业资源损失索赔的实务问题,采用法定监测机构作出专业监测评估报告,为损害索赔提供技术依据的方法,从监测报告的特性、内容及其监测的方法,分析得出专业监测报告属于民事诉讼证据中的＂鉴定结论＂,应当作为认定损害的依据,并提出渔业主管部门对渔业资源损害的调查权和代表国家行使渔业资源损失的索赔权并存时并无利害关系的观点。     

世界主要国家和地区土壤污染防治基本制度比较研究

虽然世界主要国家的经济发展状况、土壤污染状况、技术水平、法制传统、环境管理体制等诸多方面都存在着很大的差异,但是关于土壤污染防治基本制度,还是存在着很多相同或类似的制度设计。这些相近相似的规定,恰恰反映了土壤污染防治的规律,值得我国借鉴。这些具有共性和典型意义的基本制度有：土壤污染监测制度、土壤污染调查制度、土壤污染管制区制度、污染土壤管制制度、污染土壤修复和整治制度、土壤污染防治相关专门机构制度、土壤污染整治基金制度、土壤污染登记制度、土壤污染信息披露制度、土壤污染责任制度等。     

Shooting Down a Hijacked Plane—The German Discussion and Beyond

The article examines whether state officials may shoot down a hijacked airplane which carries uninvolved passengers, if it is known that the plane will be used against the lives of other human beings. In its first sections, it explains the German Federal Constitutional Court’s verdict against such a permission, and it scrutinizes the crucial arguments in this ruling (restrictions on the use of military weapons; human dignity arguments). The author then extends the discussion beyond the path taken by the court. She examines the defensive claims of passengers aboard the plane and the protective claims of potential victims who are present at the hijackers’ target zone. In contrast to the German Federal Constitutional Court, she concludes that state officials must take the claims of both groups of potential victims equally serious, and that such conditions allow applying a consequentialist calculus (“save the greater number”) because it is the only way out of a genuine dilemma.     

论受害人对船舶油污责任保险人的直接请求权——兼谈《中华人民共和国海事诉讼特别程序法》第97条的立法完善

在船舶油污损害赔偿领域设置保险和保证赔偿制度是保护受害人充分赔偿的需要,也是特殊侵权损害赔偿制度发展的必然。船舶油污责任保险具有适用范围特定性以及保险的强制性等特点。船舶油污损害赔偿公约体系确立了受害人对油污责任保险人或保证人的直接诉讼制度,但有着特定的适用范围,并赋予了保险人较为宽泛的抗辩事由。《中华人民共和国海事诉讼特别程序法》借鉴国际公约,确立了受害人对油污责任保险人的诉讼制度,但由于缺乏配套制度,实践中该制度的适用比较混乱。建议中国建立以油污强制责任保险制度为核心的船舶油污责任制度,明定责任保险人直接被诉的情形,以及在直接被诉情形下的抗辩事由,同时明确责任保险人承担责任的形式等。     

论农村环境污染防治的法律问题

当前,我国农村环境污染问题尤为突出,其现状已不容乐观。从法律角度分析,造成我国当前农村环境污染现状的原因既包括立法层面,也包括执法和司法层面。立法层面表现为,农村环境立法的不完善导致农村环境污染防治无法可依;执法层面表现为,农村环境执法的不力客观上放纵了环境污染行为,导致农村环境污染的进一步加剧;司法层面表现为,环境案件的久拖不决以及不公正的处理结果使农村环境污染防治失去强有力的司法保障。因此,加强农村环境污染防治必须完善我国农村环境立法,强化农村环境执法以及加强对农村环境的司法保障。