Search

There is a long tradition of constitutionalising environmental protection in the People's Republic of China ('China'). This is illustrated, for example, by the constitutionalisation of the need to construct 'ecological civilisation' – a set of values and development concepts included in 2018 as part of constitutional amendments. Yet, the Constitution of China is often described as a constitution without constitutionalism. This article examines the constitutional environmental provisions in China, as well as the underpinning constitutional theories, to demonstrate how China enjoys environmental constitutionalism. This version of constitutionalism, however, is absent of rights and overwhelmingly enforced through state-based approaches, which means that it is distinct from the rights-based and courts-centred versions of liberal constitutionalism. This study thus exemplifies how constitutional practices may adopt different formulations and environmental constitutionalism exists without being committed to liberal principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of the past 39 years' reforms, China has made great strides in economic and social development. However, as a result of this rapid development, China now faces severe environmental problems that have created enormous domestic and international pressures. To confront this crisis, China's government has enthusiastically promoted the development of an ecological civilisation and the rule of law to address the conflict between economic development and environmental protection. The enterprise environmental information disclosure (EEID) system has consequently become an important link in China's national environmental governance. Nevertheless, the current system exhibits a range of shortcomings, and recent incidents such as the August 2015 explosion in Tianjin have brought such issues clearly into the public's focus. This article examines the legislative development of China's EEID system, the effectiveness of its implementation and the causes of key legislative problems. It argues that a robust system for implementing EEID and bottom-up environmental enforcement mechanisms will help curb China's environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]