Chinese environmental law, like many things in China, has undergone dramatic change in the reform era. Early research on this area of law documented China's burgeoning environmental crisis and the frequent failure of law on the books to translate into genuine performance in practice. Scholars have thoroughly documented the institutional and political dynamics that led to weak legal implementation and enforcement. In the last decade, China has substantially elevated the policy priority of environmental protection. Leaders have vigorously promoted a notion of “ecological civilization” and sought to transition China's economy toward “high-quality” growth. This shift in priority has been accompanied by a torrent of new environmental laws, regulations, administrative measures, judicial interpretations, plans and policies. The level of activity has been difficult even for specialists to track.
In this context, Yuhong Zhao's book, Chinese Environmental Law, is an indispensable treatise on Chinese environmental law that documents both historical developments and legal reforms in this more recent period through February 2020. While there are treatises of this sort in Chinese, this is the best and most comprehensive overview I have seen of Chinese environmental law and legal institutions in the English language.
The book consists of three sections. Chapters one and two serve as an introduction to China's environmental crisis, sources of law, and the key institutions of environmental protection. Chapters three through eight each cover a particular law or issue area – the framework Environmental Protection Law, environmental impact assessment, air pollution, water pollution, waste management and soil contamination. Chapters nine to 12 describe Chinese environmental torts, administrative law, criminal law and public interest litigation.
The coverage here is impressive. Notably, Zhao has managed to capture the ferment of Chinese environmental law development in the Xi era. This includes major developments such as the action plans on air, water and soil and the establishment of public interest litigation, which have garnered sustained attention from outside observers. It also includes coverage of the range of lesser-known institutional and regulatory reforms that have emerged from China in the last decade, including environmental permits, environmental taxes, ecological compensation schemes, environmental insurance rules, total pollution control, designation of key regions, the river chief system, equal accountability of Party and government leaders, the expansion of environmental crimes, the proliferation of environmental tribunals, and bans on the import of solid waste. If you are not sure what some of these are, this book offers an explanation. For those who have been studying Chinese environmental law over the years, this book reminds us just how much work has gone on in China to construct a comprehensive environmental law regime.
At the same time, there are omissions. Significantly, there is virtually no mention of climate change. This may be because China has not yet passed a climate change law or an omnibus climate change regulation. Moreover, President Xi announced China's 2060 carbon neutrality target in September 2020, after this manuscript was submitted. Yet, China has been active in climate change planning and policy for many years. The book rightly introduces plan and policy documents (along with law) in the context of other issue areas and the book could have discussed these and as-yet-incomplete efforts to pass a climate change law. The book also does not cover “green” environmental issues like endangered species or habitat protection, nature reserves, ecological redlines and resource protection. The coverage here is firmly within the traditional realm of “brown” (pollution-related) issues. Zhao may just be adhering to conventional field-related line drawing among Chinese scholars, but the omissions are worth noting.
As is typical of treatise-style treatments of law, the book is not overt in forwarding a particular argument about Chinese environmental law; the work presents itself as an encyclopedic treatment of a body of law. Yet, the structure of the book and discussion of law and institutions implicitly support certain narratives that are contested in other scholarship.
For example, in mainly cataloguing the (admittedly impressive) flowering of Chinese environmental law, the book fits squarely within official narratives that treat China's legal construction as evidence of the merits of a top-down, state-driven system. Relatively limited space is devoted to the role of environmental groups and citizens. Problems of implementation or enforcement that are the subject of much other scholarship also receive relatively little discussion (although the book helpfully highlights a large number of litigation case studies as a way to shed light on law in practice).
To be fair, the focus on state (as opposed to citizen) action reflects the direction of things on the ground in China. And the limited treatment of implementation is a product of both the newness of some of the developments described and an indication of just how much more research needs to be done. In a period where field research in China has become much more difficult (due to Covid-19 and shifting political dynamics), our understanding of Chinese environmental regulation in practice has narrowed. I have written elsewhere about how continuous cycles of reform coupled with uncertainty about actual performance can create a sort of “symbolic legitimacy” for the Chinese party-state.
As a book in the comparative law space, it is also worth noting that this volume only glancingly addresses how we should understand the very role of law within the Chinese system. To its credit, the book covers state and Party policies and plans and notes that “Chinese law is highly policy oriented and environmental law is no exception” (p. 28). Yet this seems to underplay the role of Party plans and policies and the importance of bureaucratic mobilization through cycles of five-year plans. And it may overstate the role of law within the Chinese system. This is not a simple question, to be sure, but some sense of the author's views on this issue would have been welcome.
In the end, this book is a terrific contribution to a growing body of research, and an essential resource for anyone interested in Chinese environmental law. It has organized a tremendous amount of material and will serve as the launching point for many new research projects to come.
