Adjudicating environmental tort cases in China: burden of proof, causation, and insights from 513 court decisions

• DOI: 10.4337/apjel.2018.02.05
• Publication Date: 2018-11-22T15:45:02Z
• Authors: Fan Yang; Ting Zhang; Hao Zhang
• Keywords: Causation; Burden of Proof

Developing countries and with economies in transition have varying experiences enforcing their national environmental law. China's judicial interpretations legislation on protection established the rules that shift burden of proof for causation tort litigation. However, this study 513 court decisions from people's courts at different levels China shows although usually refer to or quote proof, most cases victim-plaintiffs still bear liability prove whether causal relationship exists between pollution harm. This also finds Chinese defer greatly evaluation report proving causation. It suggests practice adjudicating values more factual a incident than provisions regarding stipulated by relevant laws. Consequently, such practices hinder effectiveness remedies victims China.