Source: Sichuan Daily-Chuanguan News
The prosecutor of Santai County People's Procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit against an administrative unit for failing to perform its duties in accordance with the law. (Data picture provided by Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate)
chuanguan News Reporter Ren Hong
"Procuratorial public interest litigation cannot be a 'one-man show' that can be played by yourself, nor is it a 'tact of 'tide' with the supervised organs. It must adhere to the principle of win-win, multi-win and win-win, strive for cooperation and support from all walks of life, form a joint force, and protect public welfare to the greatest extent."
Rule of Law Focus
Before the Spring Festival, the first separate civil public interest litigation case filed by Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate was heard in the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court. Due to illegal hunting, the two defendants were sentenced to individually or jointly bear the losses, totaling more than 360,000 yuan, and publicly apologized to the public through the media. In addition to the prosecutor who appeared in court to perform his duties as the prosecutor of public interest litigation, Luo Binghua, head of the Administrative Approval Section of Mianyang Forestry Bureau, also represented the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate as a special assistant to the prosecutor. Inviting administrative professionals to serve as assistants to prosecutors in public interest litigation cases is a measure taken by the Mianyang Municipal Procuratorate to promote the improvement of the quality and efficiency of handling public interest litigation cases.
On July 1, 2017, the public interest litigation system for the procuratorate was officially implemented, aiming to protect the national and public interests in the fields of ecological environment and resource protection, food and drug safety, state-owned property protection and transfer of state-owned land use rights, and protection of heroes and martyrs. How to solve the problem when facing problems such as difficulty in discovering clues, difficulty in obtaining evidence, and difficulty in identifying them? In recent years, the Mianyang City Procuratorate has been constantly exploring.
"Public Interest Litigation +"
Broaden the source of clues and build more consensus and joint efforts
February 19, when Ma Ming, a prosecutor of the People's Procuratorate of Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, passed by a section of landscape river at work, he found obvious garbage floating objects gathering on a section of water. "It should be formed by cleaning up the river garbage." Ma Ming told reporters that the hospital is collecting fixed evidence and will urge the solution of the problem.
Ma Ming and his colleagues will always consciously and unconsciously collect relevant clues. When taking a walk after a meal, you should also see if there is any problem with the manhole cover. "I found that the two are very different from the public interest litigation when transferring from criminal prosecution. Most criminal cases are 'handled in the house', waiting for relevant departments to transfer the cases, and promoting litigation procedures such as approval of arrest, review and prosecution in accordance with the law; while handling public interest litigation cases must 'take the initiative', otherwise the system may be idle and there is no case to be handled." Ma Ming said.
Public interest litigation and technical department police officers conduct rapid inspection of a public interest litigation case on a direct sewage discharge case. (Data picture provided by Mianyang People's Procuratorate)
Zhang Ping, director of the Sixth Procuratorate of Mianyang People's Procuratorate (Public Interest Litigation Procuratorate), has the same understanding. "Public interest litigation must be 'open-door handling of cases'. Prosecutors need to go out and deal with relevant departments or people in the discovery of clues, evidence collection, supervision and rectification. "Zhang Ping said, "Prosecutor's public interest litigation cannot be a 'one-man show' that can be played and sung by itself, nor is it a 'tact of 'tide' with the supervised organs. It must adhere to the principle of win-win, multi-win and win-win, strive for cooperation and support from all walks of life, form a joint force, and protect public welfare to the greatest extent."
Zhang Ping introduced that in recent years, the Mianyang City Procuratorate has actively explored "public interest litigation +" to build more consensus and joint efforts to protect public welfare. For example, with the Mianyang River Chief System Office, it has explored and established a long-term mechanism for the management and protection and governance of river and lakes in Mianyang City's "Four Chiefs (river chiefs, police chiefs, patrol chiefs, presidents) joint protection + procuratorial supervision" river and lake management, and has innovatively established river and lake prosecutors throughout the province, established river and lake prosecutors' offices; established procuratorial studios in the Mianyang Market Supervision Administration, etc. "Now, if there are any important meetings in the River Chief Office, it will invite river and lake prosecutors to participate. Some case review meetings of the market supervision department will also invite our prosecutors to participate." She said that "public interest litigation +" has broadened the source of clues, and the number of related cases has increased significantly; the cooperation of all parties has also promoted the better resolution of the infringement of public welfare.
Last year, the prosecutor stationed in the Procuratorate Studio of the Market Supervision Administration learned that the Market Supervision Administration was leading a special crackdown on illegal transportation and trading in the refined oil field, and keenly discovered clues of public interest litigation cases that endanger public safety. The procuratorate connected with administrative law enforcement departments and industry associations such as the Economic and Information Bureau, the Market Supervision Administration, the Transportation Bureau and other administrative law enforcement departments and industry associations to straighten out the rights and responsibilities from the perspective of legal understanding and application in response to the chaos in the refined oil and liquefied petroleum gas market. The Mianyang Municipal Procuratorate also promptly carried out special activities to combat chaos in the petrochemical energy field, urged to strengthen safety law enforcement inspections and special supervision, and promoted related industries and social governance.
"Anzhou District Procuratorate has established an organizational system of 'River Chief + River and Lake Prosecutor', and set up a river and lake prosecutor for each river." Xia Danna, director of the Second Procuratorial Department of the Anzhou District People's Procuratorate of Mianyang City, introduced that during the epidemic prevention and control period, the prosecutor of the procuratorate of the court found that during the daily inspection, some medical institutions had discharged medical wastewater without applying for pollutant discharge permits, and immediately communicated and negotiated with administrative agencies on the issue of pollution discharge permit supervision, and worked together to implement medical wastewater treatment. Subsequently, relevant departments carried out special investigations and further improved administrative approval work.
Set up special invitation prosecutor assistant
Avoid "fighting alone" and improve the professional level of case handling
Recalling the situation when he sat in the seat of the public interest litigation prosecutor a month ago, Luo Binghua still remembers the solemn and solemn atmosphere of the court.
That is a civil public interest litigation caused by illegal hunting. The perpetrators Gao and Zhang adopted extinction hunting methods alone or jointly, illegally hunting 7 species of wild animals, with a number of up to 26 (only), covering national second-level key protected animals and "three-in-one animals". The number of black bears alone was as high as 8. Previously, the two had been sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison and 11 years in prison for illegal hunting and killing precious and endangered wild animals. Based on the fact that the two people hunted and killed many wild animals, which caused damage to local wildlife resources and ecological balance, the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate has launched a civil public interest litigation procedure. The court made the above judgment after trial.
"My biggest feeling in this case is to 'relieve'. Every time I see the animals being hunted, it's really sad. In the past, it was administrative penalties or sentences, but compared with the investment in protecting wild animals, it was a drop in the bucket. Now, through the procuratorial public interest litigation, the infringer can be sentenced to bear the liability for compensation. Although there is still a big gap in comparison of losses, the warning effect is greater." Luo Binghua said.
This case is the first case in which the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate has specially invited assistant prosecutors to directly participate in court trials as members of the prosecutor's case handling team since the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate hired administrative professionals to serve as assistant prosecutors. There have been many public welfare cases, and special assistants of prosecutors have also participated.
"Public interest litigation involves a wide range of areas and many professional problems. The procuratorate is fighting alone, and it is difficult to handle the case well. In the above cases, how to determine the damage to public interest and how to determine compensation cannot be separated from professional analysis." Zhang Ping introduced that last year, the Mianyang Municipal People's Procuratorate established a special administrative professional in public interest litigation cases as assistants to prosecutors, and invited 18 special prosecutors from Mianyang Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, Water Resources Bureau, Market Supervision Administration, Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Forestry Bureau and other units to cooperate in handling cases, and use professional knowledge to protect public welfare.
"This system not only exerts the knowledge and expertise of administrative professionals in administrative law enforcement practice and professional fields, improves the professional level of handling public interest litigation cases, but also enhances the credibility and legal popularization effect of procuratorial work." Provincial People's Congress representative Xu Ling commented.
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