Beijing court takes new steps to handle environmental cases

Beijing No 4 Intermediate People’s Court will coordinate with courts in Hebei province and Tianjin to improve the quality of handling environment-related cases.

The court announced the decision on Thursday, the National Ecology Day, and also issued a report on environmental judiciary showcasing its efforts, achievements and plans on protecting the environment and beautifying the country.

“We’ll focus more on tackling major environmental cases in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and take new measures to enhance and promote regional coordinated development in environment protection and ecology,” Guo Yueqing, chief judge of the Beijing court’s environmental adjudication tribunal, told a news conference.

On June 4, the Beijing court signed a memorandum of judicial protection in the field of environment and ecology with No 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Tianjin and the Intermediate People’s Court in Xiong’an New Area, aiming to establish more cooperation in terms of information sharing, collaboration, research and law education.

Subsequently, the courts have set up a work mechanism to regularly share new environmental risks and emerging judicial problems in the region and provide easier legal services for residents to pursue cases and attend trials.

Guo also said that more attention will be paid to solve disputes involving air, water, soil, noise and solid waste pollution, the common complaints raised by the public.

“In addition, we’ll strengthen research on environment to make case handling more efficient and raising legal awareness of public to guide them to live low-carbon lives,” said Wang Jing, vice-president of the Beijing court.

He said the Beijing court has dealt with 117 environmental cases since 2015, covering various areas such as wildlife protection, air pollution and wetland conservation.

Among the cases, many were public-interest lawsuits initiated by environmental associations and prosecutors.

He added that the court also set up a tribunal consisting of 12 people to specialize in handling environmental disputes in August 2023, the only environmental tribunal established in an intermediate-level court in Beijing.