着力提升农村环境保护的法制化水平

农村环境保护问题已成为国家政策和立法推进的重点和难点之一。保护农村环境要遵守农村环境法定原则、政府责任原则、农民利益至上原则。农村环境保护法制化的主要领域涉及水源保护、垃圾处理等。实践中,由于农村环境保护的专门立法缺失,加之修改《环境保护法》困难重重等,因此,加强我国农村环境保护法制化建设,必须建立健全农村环境保护专门立法体系,着力完善相关法律法规,进一步强化行政监督管理。     

环境运动和环境组织在生态文明建设中的作用

环境运动和环境组织的兴起与世界范围内日益凸显的环境和生态问题以及政府和市场在生态文明建设中存在的失灵现象紧密相连。环境运动和环境组织在我国生态文明建设中发挥着积极的作用,具有扩大群众参与、反映群众诉求、增强社会自治的功能。环境运动和环境组织是我国生态文明建设中的薄弱环节,要推动其健康有序发展,必须将党的领导、人民当家作主和依法治国有机统一起来。     

“二元协商”模型对我国环境公众参与制度的启示与借鉴

环境公众参与被定位为实现环境民主的具体制度,对其制度现状的审视与制度完善的建议应纳入民主理论框架内。协商民主理论与环境公众参与具有内在关联,完整的协商民主程序应包括公众参与结构性的社会学习和政策制定这两个阶段构成的“二元协商”框架模型,该模型对于完善环境公众参与制度具有借鉴意义。社会学习阶段的审慎民意调查、网络公共论坛和民主恳谈会等形式为公众真正参与环境公共事务进行知识准备和程序训练;公众可以通过公民陪审团和社区环境活动等形式正式参与环境公共政策的制定过程。     

论修改《环境保护法》的几个问题

贯彻"十八大"关于"大力推进生态文明建设"的精神,将1989年《环境保护法》修改成对我国今后环境资源生态保护工作具有基础指导作用、长期引导作用、全面激励作用的综合性法律、政策性法律。修改后的法律应该是将生态文明建设摆在国家"五位一体建设总布局"突出位置、具有生态法特征的综合性法律;应该申明、宣示和规定环境法的基本理念、基本原则;明确规定公民的基本环境权利和义务,公民有享用清洁、健康的环境的权利,有保护环境的义务;明确规定环境公益诉讼;明确政府的环境责任,健全政府环境责任问责制;规定基本的环境法律制度和重要的环境法律措施,规定政策环境影响评价。     

环境公益诉讼的性质识别、原告寻找与审理机关专门化

环境公益诉讼因缺乏有力立法支撑,处于一种司法实践先于立法的混乱局面。从对2007年1012年国内公开报道的30起环境公益诉讼案件的司法裁判文书进行实证研究发现：环境公益诉讼无论诉讼目的还是救济方式均不同于传统诉讼,它是在原有诉讼体系上“重生”的一种新型诉讼;为实现维护环境公益的目的,这样一种新型诉讼的原告资格应赋予公民个人、环保团体、环境行政机关及检察机关,并且应由专门审判机关进行审理。     

Environmental protection and US–Asia relations: a policy of disconnect

Despite the post-September 11 focus on regional security and the continued emphasis on regional economic cooperation, environmental degradation should not be overlooked as an important issue for US policy in and relationship with the Asia-Pacific. It is an important issue in its own right, presenting the countries of the region with ecological, economic and social (human security) challenges. There are both ethical and instrumental impulses for the United States, as a rich indus­trialised country and as a disproportionate consumer of resources and polluter of global waste, to provide environmental assistance to the Asia-Pacific. Despite global demands that the ‘new’ new world (environmental) order should be based on solidarity and collective responsibility, neither US environmental policy towards the region nor the regional consequences of its international environmental policy more generally meet this test. The US is fundamentally self-regarding rather than other-regarding in the various dimensions of its environmental relationship with the region. The consequences for both the region and for the US may be substantial. Continued environmental degradation in the region has the potential to undermine other US policy goals, in terms of its reputation, it economic objectives and even its more orthodox geopolitical security objectives.     

Beyond birds: Biopower and birdwatching in the world of Audubon

ABSTRACT

This paper surveys the nascent experiments in political ecology underway in predominantly Kurdish areas of south-eastern Turkey, known as Bakûr, and Rojava (northern Syria). The Kurdish freedom movement is attempting to consolidate a social revolution with ecology at its heart in a most unpromising context, given its ongoing struggle against Islamic State and regional embargoes. This greening of its ideology can be significantly attributed to the influence of American social ecologist Murray Bookchin, an inspiration for Kurdish attempts to implement democratic confederalism, which comprises principles of direct democracy, gender equality and ecological well-being in a needs-based economy. The Mesopotamian Ecology Movement has emerged from activist campaigns opposing dam construction, climate change and deforestation in the region, to inform ecology councils tasked with formulating policies that reflect this philosophical paradigm shift. The essay considers the prospects for the ecological initiatives in Turkish and Syrian Kurdistan. It argues that, confronted by formidable challenges, expansion of the democratic confederal model beyond the heartlands of Bakûr and Rojava, and international solidarity, are preconditions for their endurance.     

区域环境治理中地方政府协调机制的构建

环境问题是一个关系到人类生存发展和社会进步的全局性问题。随着社会的发展和人类生活水平的提高,人们对于生活中的环境问题的重视程度也越来也高,对环境的治理越来越要求政府发挥更大作用。但是,环境治理是一个系统工程,需要众多的主体综合协作才能够取得好的成绩。各级地方政府要加强协作,构建和谐的区域性综合治理机制。     

When governments ignore public opinion in foreign policy: Poland and the Iraq invasion

This article asks why the Government of Poland participated in the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 when a large majority of the Polish public was opposed to national involvement in Iraq. The aim is to further an understanding of the circumstances under which democratic governments ignore public opinion in their foreign policy decision-making. The article argues that a combination of three circumstances increased the willingness of the government to ignore the public. First, the Iraq issue had relatively low salience among the Polish voters, which decreased the domestic political risks of pursuing the policy. Second, the government's Iraq policy was supported by a considerable consensus among the political elite. Third, the political elites were unified in their perceptions that participating in the invasion would yield essential international gains for Poland.     

Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland, 2004–2014

Despite increased interest in environmental crime and green criminology, few studies address the use of criminal penalties in response to environmental crimes. A handful of published examples employ data from the United States or the Flanders court system, and little is known about how other nations punish environmental violations. Addressing this issue, the current study examined the use of criminal environmental penalties in Ireland from 2004 to 2014. Few criminal environmental cases (N = 147) and few environmental offenders (N = 154) were represented in these data over time. Consistent with the expectations of green/environmental crime researchers, mean penalties for environmental violations, which in Ireland only include fines and investigative cost recovery penalties, were rather small. Unlike in the US or Flanders, the majority of offenders were corporate offenders as opposed to individuals. Contextual factors related to Ireland’s economy, history and use of criminal sanctions should be used to interpret these factors, and prevent generalising from these data.