Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Environmental Public Interest Litigation in Soil Pollution Law

This chapter reviews the historical developments of environmental public interest litigation within the context of soil pollution in China to identify what roles it has played in soil pollution prevention and remediation. Due to the complexity of land remediation, there is a heavy reliance on scientific evidence. A deficiency of EPIL exists especially in confirming compensation amounts, setting clean-up criteria and monitoring remediation process. With the commencement of the Law on Soil Pollution Prevention and Control in 2019, liability for land contamination is clearly stipulated as public liability, directly imposed by environmental agencies. This liability may include undertaking a site investigation, site risk assessment, risk control, remediation, evaluation of site risk control and remediation, and long-term stewardship. In view of the dominance of administrative power in soil pollution prevention and control, environmental public interest litigation should be reshaped by focusing on the preventive function, supplementing the responsibility of soil remediation with civil public interest litigation, and strengthening the supervision of administrative power with administrative public interest litigation.