On September 23rd, the 6th Issue of Sino-French Legal and Judicial Exchange Week (RFCDJ) was held at the French Embassy in Beijing. The event was sponsored by the Legal Department of the French Embassy in China, with the theme of “Building Environmental Law to Ensure the Escort of Economy and Enterprises”. China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was invited to send representatives to attend. Secretary-General Zhou Jinfeng shared the keynote report about "Environmental Public Interest Litigation: Civil Society Promoting High-Quality Development in the Era of Ecological Civilization" in a group discussion in the afternoon.

At the opening ceremony in the morning, Anthony MANWARING, head of the Legal Department of the French Embassy in China; Zhu Junqin, deputy director of the Legal Regulations Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment; Anne Charlotte GROS, director of Civil Law Initiative China Bureau; Professor Zhu Xiaoxu, Renmin University of China; and Patricia SAVIN, Partner of DS Law Firm and President of the French Enterprise Environmental Protection Organization, delivered speeches respectively.

The first part of the morning focuses on law and circular economy. Li Hua, a partner of Squire Patton Boggs, presided over this session. Delphine HEDARY, Justice of the Supreme Administrative Court of France, shared the “French Law on Circular Economy and the Responsibility of Producers for Waste Disposal”. Tan Baiping, associate professor of Beijing University of Technology, made a brilliant keynote report on "Circular Economy under the Framework of Chinese Law". Beatrice PARANCE, a member of the National Commission on Ethics and Public Health and Environmental Alert of France, asked: "how to combat proceduralist of scrapping?" The keynote report on planned scrapping shares how French lawmakers have cracked down on planned scrapping and highlight the important role of civil society.

In the morning’s question session, the representative of the CBCGDF took the relevant provisions of Shanghai in 2017 on “three-year scrapping of shared bicycles” and the environmental public interest lawsuit brought by Chongqing CBCGDF against takeaway platform that did not allow consumers to choose disposable tableware as the examples to discuss whether there were any regulations or provisions in France concerning the right of consumers to “green consumption”. Professor Beatrice PARANCE answered this question. She pointed out that there is collective litigation in France, but there is no public interest litigation such as those in China just mentioned. Taking the prevention and control of plastic pollution as an example, she said that five years ago in France, people were still indifferent to this topic; but through the advocacy of social organizations, people became more and more aware of the public hazards of plastic pollution, especially the threat to marine migratory species, which gradually promoted the global popularity of this topic. Today, plastic pollution has been recognized as one of the most serious environmental challenges facing the world. She uses this example to illustrate how civil society in France has powerfully promoted environmental governance.

The second part of the morning focuses on the sharing of experience among the economic sectors of the Law for the Green Economy. He Jingjing, an associate researcher at the International Economic Law Research Department of the International Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chaired this session. Andrea RIGAL CASTA, the partner of CEO AVOCATS Law Firm and member of the Council of the China-France Environment Association (EFC), introduced the legal and practical issues of "waste recycling and by-product reuse". Wang Li, deputy director of the 8th Hall of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China, made a splendid sharing of the "procuratorial public interest litigation serving the green economy”. Gilles LHUILLER, the professor at école Normale Supérieure de Rennes in France, introduced France's environmental licensing system for the mining industry (oil, natural gas, mining). Starting from a gold mine case, he introduced the normative framework of social licensing for the mining industry, as well as the relevant guidelines on business management obligations, environmental protection obligations, financing obligations, and contractual obligations. Li Hailiang, chairman of Xi'an Xiaoyu Eco-technology Co., Ltd., introduced the legal protection of terminal treatment of air pollution. Notary Antoine BOUQUEMONT shared the report of “Green Value-added Organic Waste: Anaerobic Digestion”.

So far, Sino-French Legal and Judicial Exchange Week between China and France has been held for six consecutive periods, aiming at providing a bilateral cooperation space for the legal and judicial circles of China and France to exchange views on the development of legal and professional practice. Since its inception, more than 2,000 people have participated in the event. Under the guidance of experts from all walks of life (professors, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, judicial officers, government officials, non-governmental organizations, urban planning experts, etc.), high-level exchanges have been held on several important topics, including environmental law. As part of the Sino-French Environment Month in 2019, this year’s 6th Sino-French Legal and Judicial Exchange Week is devoted to exploring how law can be used as a tool to promote a healthy relationship between environment and economy.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4937/9959.html

By / Xue Tongtong