Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Trial of Cases Involving Disputes over Compensation for Damage to Marine Natural Resources, Ecology and Environment

[2017] Fashi No. 23

For the purpose of accurately trying cases involving disputes over compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment, these Provisions are developed in accordance with the provisions of the Marine Environment Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Special Maritime Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant laws and in light of judicial practice.

Article 1 Where a people's court tries a lawsuit filed for compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment as prescribed in paragraph 2 of Article 89 of the Marine Environment Protection Law, these Provisions shall apply.

Article 2 Where a party engages in activities on the sea or in the coastal land areas, causing any damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment in the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China and a lawsuit for compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment is filed thereby, the lawsuit shall be under the jurisdiction of the maritime court at the place where the damage act occurs, the place of the damage result, or the place where preventative measures are taken.

Article 3 Where an organ that exercises the power of marine environment supervision and control as prescribed in Article 5 of the Marine Environment Protection Law files a lawsuit for compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment according to its functions, a people's court shall accept such lawsuit.

Article 4 Where a people's court accepts a lawsuit for compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment, it shall, within five days from the date of docketing, announce the information on the acceptance of the case.

Where, in the trial, a people's court finds that there may exist any of the following circumstances, it may, in written form, notify other organs that legally exercise the power of marine environment supervision and control:

(1) The same damage involves different areas or different departments.

(2) Different damage shall be claimed by other organs that legally exercise the power of marine environment supervision and control.

The term “different damage” as mentioned in these Provisions includes different types of damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment and the same type of damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment that may be clearly determined to fall within the scope of claims of different organs.

Article 5 Where, within 30 days from the date when an announcement is made in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of these Provisions or within seven days from the date of written notification, any other organ that has the right to file a lawsuit against the same damage files an application for participating in litigation and it meets the statutory conditions upon examination, a people's court shall list the organ as a joint plaintiff; and if the said organ files an application beyond the prescribed time limit, the people's court shall not permit such application. Where the organ separately files a lawsuit after the judgment takes effect, the people's court shall handle the lawsuit by referring to the provisions of Article 28 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigations.

With respect to different damage, the organs that legally exercise the power of marine environment supervision and control may separately file lawsuits; where the claimants jointly file a lawsuit or apply for participating in litigation within a prescribed time limit, the people's court shall decide whether to try such lawsuit as joint action in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 52 of the Civil Procedure Law.

Article 6 Where an organ that legally exercises the power of marine environment supervision and control claims that the liable person causing damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment should assume such civil liability as cessation of infringements, removal of obstacles, elimination of dangers, restoration to the original state, apology, and compensation for losses, a people's court shall, according to the claim and details of the case, rationally rule that the liable person should assume civil liability.

Article 7 The scope of compensation for marine natural resources, ecology and environment losses includes:

(1) preventative measure costs, which are incurred from taking reasonable emergency response measures to reduce or prevent marine environment pollution, ecological deterioration, and reduction of natural resources;

(2) restoration costs, which are required for taking or prospective taking of measures to restore fully or partially the damaged marine natural resources and ecology and environment functions;

(3) losses during the restoration period, including the loss of marine natural resources and the loss of ecology and environment service functions before the partial or full restoration of damaged marine natural resources and ecology and environment functions; and

(4) investigation and assessment costs, which are incurred from investigation, survey, and monitoring of polluted areas and assessment of pollution and other damage risks and actual damage.

Article 8 Restoration costs shall be limited to reasonable costs that have been actually incurred from the practical restoration and those that will be inevitably incurred from future restoration and include costs incurred from development and implementation of a restoration scheme, monitoring, and regulation.

The reasonable costs that will be inevitably incurred from future restoration and the losses during the restoration period may be determined according to the expert opinions issued by a qualified identification and appraisal agency in accordance with laws and regulations and technical specifications for identification and appraisal issued by the competent state organs, unless the parties have sufficient contrary evidence to refute them.

The preventative measure costs and investigation and assessment costs shall be calculated according to the reasonable costs that have been actually incurred and will be inevitably incurred in the future.

Where the liable party has taken reasonable preventative and restoration measures and he or it claims the corresponding reduction of the amount of compensation, a people's court shall support such claim.

Article 9 Where it is difficult to determine the restoration costs and losses during the restoration period in accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of these Provisions, a people's court may reasonably determine the amount of compensation for losses according to the income the liable party gains from his or its damage act or the costs of pollution prevention and control he or it less pays.

Where the income or costs as prescribed in the preceding subparagraph cannot be determined, it may be reasonably determined by referring to the average revenue of producers and traders of the same category in the same area over the same period and the average costs of pollution prevention and control over the same period as proved by the relevant statistical materials of the government departments or other evidence.

Article 10 Where a people's court renders a judgment that the liable party should compensate for marine natural resources, ecology and environment losses, it may be concurrently stated in the judgment that upon receipt of the compensation, the organ that legally exercises the power of marine environment supervision and control should pay such compensation to the state treasury account.

Where it is necessary to take enforcement measures for a legally effective judgment, the case shall be transferred for enforcement.

Article 11 Where the parties to a lawsuit for compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment reach a mediation agreement or reach a settlement agreement on their own, a people's court shall handle the case in accordance with the provisions of Article 25 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigations.

Article 12 When people's courts try cases involving disputes over compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment, if these Provisions are silent, the provisions of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Disputes over Liability for Environmental Torts, the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigations, and other relevant judicial interpretations shall apply.

Where a party engages in activities on the sea or in the coastal land areas and forms damage threat to the marine natural resources, ecology and environment in the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China, and a people's court tries a case involving disputes over compensation caused thereby, these Provisions shall apply mutatis mutandis.

When a people's court tries a case involving compensation for damage to marine natural resources, ecology and environment caused by vessels, where there are other special provisions prescribed by laws, administrative regulations, and judicial interpretations, such special provisions shall prevail.

Article 13 These Provisions shall come into force on January 15, 2018. These Provisions shall apply to cases of first instance and second instance that have not been concluded by people's courts; and these Provisions shall not apply to cases for which an effective judgment has been rendered before these Provisions come into force and of which the parties apply for retrial after these Provisions come into force.

Where, after these Provisions come into force, the judicial interpretations previously issued by the Supreme People's Court are inconsistent with these Provisions, these Provisions shall prevail.