ANNUAL REVIEW OF CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW DEVELOPMENTS: 2020

摘要

In China, the year 2020 witnessed further evolution of environmental protection and development of legislation. This included adoption of the Civil Code, which contains several provisions on natural resources and environmental liability; a prohibition on the consumption of wildlife; and laws on biosecurity, Yangtze River protection, and environmental crimes. This Comment summarizes some of the year's major developments.The National People's Congress (NPC) adopted the Civil Code on May 28, 2020. Several provisions are related to natural resources and environmental protection. Some of them are incorporated from previous legislation, with or without revision, while others are newly added provisions. The environment-related provisions can be roughly grouped into natural resources provisions and tort liability provisions, and the latter can be further grouped into regular environmental torts and environmental tort liabilities arising from ultrahazardous activities.Natural resources are generally owned by the state, with limited exceptions. This is a general requirement of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. The new Civil Code accordingly contains more detailed provisions on the state ownership of natural resources; in addition to the Civil Code, other laws may also provide for state ownership of certain categories of resources.