Prosecutors handle more public interest litigation cases in 2020

Reports by top procuratorate and top court highlight impact on governance

Judicial authorities handled more public interest litigation cases last year, strengthening supervision of administrative departments and promoting law-based social governance, the annual work reports of the top procuratorate and top court showed.

The reports were submitted to the annual session of China's top legislature for deliberation on March 8 and passed by legislators on March 11.

Public interest litigation is an important institutional arrangement to promote the modernization of China's governance system, said Ma Qi, deputy head of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's general office.

It has played a significant role in safeguarding national and public interests since it was implemented nationwide in July 2017, he said. Procuratorates initiate the vast majority of such civil cases.

Last year, procuratorates at all levels handled 151,260 public interest litigation cases, with the number of cases against nongovernment entities doubling and the number of cases against administrative departments up 14.4 percent year-on-year. The number of public interest litigation cases initiated by procuratorial organs was up 19.2 percent, the report said.

Ma said the increase in the number of cases initiated by procuratorates does not mean that government departments have more problems, but that stricter supervision requirements have been adopted.

Administrative public interest litigation involves supervising administrative departments' performance of their duties, and some procuratorates had been afraid and unwilling to handle such cases at first, Ma said.

The top procuratorate then made it clear that while procuratorial and administrative organs have different divisions of labor, they share the same objectives. The work has now won strong support from administrative organs, he said.

In administrative public interest litigation, procuratorates first consult with administrative departments about problems, asking them to perform their duties and solve problems. If the consultation fails, procuratorates will send official suggestions urging the department to rectify the problem. Departments that fail to rectify them within the allotted time are sued.

"The essence of public interest litigation is to facilitate administrative organs' performance of their duties according to law and jointly safeguard the fundamental interests of the people," Ma said. "The system aims to solve problems. As long as the problem is solved, the ongoing procedure will stop."

Taking the case of some polluting companies enjoying preferential tax policies as an example, the Supreme People's Procuratorate worked with the State Administration of Taxation to verify the cases and urged the administration to make rectifications and promote information sharing on environmental penalties to improve the tax policies by closing such loopholes.

Last year, procuratorates nationwide issued 118,000 pre-prosecution procuratorial suggestions, up 14.1 percent year-on-year. About 99.4 percent of the administrative organs involved replied and rectified the problems, the report said.

They also filed 8,010 lawsuits against departments that failed to implement procuratorial suggestions, and the courts had concluded 5,976 such cases, it said.

According to the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Procedure Law, procuratorates can handle public interest litigation in the areas of environmental and resources protection, food and drug safety, State-owned property protection, the transfer of State-owned land-use rights, and the rights and interests of heroes and martyrs.

However, some areas of public interest, such as production safety, public health and the protection of people with disabilities, have not yet been covered by such laws. Many legislators and political advisers want to expand the scope of public interest litigation, Ma said.

Procuratorates filed 27,000 cases last year related to common problems in a number of areas, including epidemic prevention materials, the treatment of medical waste and railway safety.

When delivering the report to the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing this month, Procurator-General Zhang Jun said procuratorial work should be actively integrated into the overall development situation and assist in the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Zhang said public interest litigation should highlight the warmth and strength of the rule of law, reduce the cost of safeguarding people's legitimate rights and interests and raise the cost of breaking the law.

Prosecutors initiated public interest litigation on the construction of a barrier-free environment for the disabled and eliminating the "digital divide" for seniors unable to use the smartphone health codes rolled out as an epidemic prevention measure and payment codes to make everyday purchases. Procuratorates also handled 27,000 food and drug safety public interest litigation cases and 151 military-related ones, the report said.

About 51,000 suspects were prosecuted for damaging the environment and resources last year, a year-on-year increase 0.9 percent, and prosecutors also handled 84,000 public interest litigation cases in those areas, up 21 percent year-on-year.

A case involving the cleaning up of Wanfeng Lake, which was directly handled by the top procuratorate, concluded last year. The lake used to have bad water quality due to poorly regulated farming and central environmental inspection teams urged cleanup efforts in 2016 and 2017.

The 816-square kilometer lake lies at the junction of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and its pollution management and prevention responsibilities fell under different departments in those jurisdictions, leading to inefficient rectification.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate filed the case and issued suggestions urging related authorities to rectify the problems in December 2019. When the case was concluded last year, about 8.1 sq km of the lake's area had been cleaned up, with 18 metric tons of garbage removed.

The top procuratorate, the ministries of public security, ecology and environment, and natural resources work together to target hazardous waste that damages the environment, and have strengthened law enforcement cooperation to protect farmland.

Last year, Chinese courts intensified their efforts in handling public interest litigation to strengthen environmental protection and ecological conservation, according to the annual work report of the Supreme People's Court, which was also delivered to this month's NPC meeting.

It showed that courts nationwide concluded 3,557 public interest cases concerning the environment last year, up 82.1 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, courts at all levels also paid close attention to hearing public interest litigation related to the purchase of houses, cars, tourism services and online education to create a sound legal environment for the country's consumption upgrade.