the only one in zhejiang! why was this environmental judicial case selected as one of the “top ten in china”?
2024-09-02
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chao news client reporter wang xiaolin xiao
image source: visual china
not long ago, at the press conference of "china's top ten environmental judicial cases" in 2023, the "case of a certain machinery company v. jiangshan municipal economic and information technology bureau and others for failure to perform legal duties and administrative compensation" heard by quzhou kecheng court was successfully selected. it is the only case selected in zhejiang province.
i have learned that this case was previously selected as one of the typical cases of environmental resource trials in 2023 released by the supreme people's court. what is this case about? why has it been selected as a typical case many times?
let’s go back to september 2022.
at that time, in order to implement the requirements for raising production capacity for the local new energy vehicle alloy structure project, the jiangshan municipal economic and information technology bureau began to communicate with enterprises on many matters related to capacity replacement and enterprise transformation and upgrading.
the so-called capacity replacement is a way to achieve industrial upgrading by eliminating obsolete capacity. under the guidance of the bureau of economics and information technology, this company wants to switch to a greener industry track.
the company, which had the idea of transformation, had smooth communication with the jiangshan municipal bureau of economics and information technology. from the end of 2022, the company began to lay off employees, shut down equipment, and stop accepting new orders, completing the preparatory work for the transformation. in april 2023, the company's replacement progress plan was discussed and approved at the local government executive meeting.
unexpectedly, one month later, due to policy changes, the replacement of production capacity in the related foundry industry could not continue, and the originally determined replacement schedule was stopped.
at this point, things start to get complicated.
since the administrative agreement has not yet been signed, the economic and information bureau has suspended the related work of capacity replacement, which is in line with the latest policy requirements.
but for the enterprises, they have already made preparations for suspension of production according to the progress of previous communication, and they don’t know what to do with the losses caused and future development.
in august 2023, the lost companies filed an administrative lawsuit with the people's court of kecheng district, quzhou city, demanding that the jiangshan economic and information technology bureau continue to perform its statutory duties.
"after we accepted the case, we immediately sent a team led by the person in charge to the company for an on-site investigation. we found that the company had indeed completed the preliminary preparations for capacity replacement. the company's continued transformation and upgrading would be more conducive to its subsequent healthy development. therefore, we urged all parties to negotiate and reach a resolution." said wu ye, the presiding judge of the kecheng court who was responsible for hearing the case.
during the coordination process, the main points of conflict between the two parties were: how much loss is there? on what basis should the compensation be made? what should the enterprise do next?
after the court investigation,the court actively coordinated with a third-party assessment agency to assess the losses of the enterprise, and sent a "letter of recommendation for coordination and resolution" to the defendant based on the assessment results, clarifying the reasons and solutions for the recommendation for coordination and resolution, and solving the problem of "why"after receiving the letter of coordination and resolution, jiangshan municipal economic and information technology bureau felt more confident.
in the end, all parties reached a coordinated resolution: the administrative agency compensated the company for its losses, provided policy guidance for the disposal of old equipment and industrial upgrading, and completed the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with new technologies. on november 14, 2023, the plaintiff company applied to the kecheng court to withdraw the lawsuit.
after the case was concluded, the judge continued to pay attention to the implementation of the settlement agreement and conducted a return visit to the company, confirming that both parties had fully fulfilled the terms of the settlement agreement, the dispute had been substantially resolved, and the company had successfully switched to the high-end precision instrument industry.
so, what is so difficult about reaching a result that satisfies both the plaintiff and the defendant in such cases?
judging from past cases, the proportion of cases where companies sue the government and are successfully mediated by the court is actually not high.
public data shows that in 2023, courts across the country received 310,000 new first-instance administrative cases and closed 308,000 cases, of which 25.1% were closed through mediation or withdrawal of lawsuits, and about 52% were closed through judgments. the number of cases closed by judgments was far greater than the number of cases closed by mediation and withdrawal of lawsuits.
wu ye analyzed that in this case, neither party was at fault. the original capacity replacement plan could not be implemented due to policy adjustments, and there was no direct causal relationship between the enterprise's losses and the administrative agency. from the perspective of legal risks, the risk of the administrative agency losing the case is relatively small, but based on the objective losses incurred by the enterprise, the administrative agency is still willing to accept mediation. during the mediation process, the administrative agency actively cooperated in the coordination and resolution of the dispute, and the final result was a win-win situation in which the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise and the optimization of the local industrial structure were achieved.
"in administrative cases, it is rare for both the plaintiff and the defendant to have a positive attitude towards resolving the matter, which is also a key to a satisfactory outcome of the case."wu ye said.
what kind of concept does the jiangshan case convey?
resolving environmental and resource administrative cases through mediation reflects zhejiang's diversified approach to resolving conflicts and disputes. this not only reduces the burden of litigation on the parties involved, but also saves judicial resources.
the second "administrative trial lecture" held by the supreme people's court on april 26 this year mentioned that the number of first-instance administrative litigation cases in zhejiang has declined for four consecutive years, and the settlement and withdrawal rate has remained high for many years.
in fact, zhejiang's exploration in this regard is consistent with general secretary xi jinping's instruction to "put non-litigation dispute resolution mechanisms in the forefront and push more rule of law forces to guide and relieve pressure". over the years, zhejiang has vigorously promoted the resolution of administrative disputes. in 2023, the province's administrative dispute coordination and withdrawal rate was 38.8%, maintaining the national leading position.
this case also sends another signal.
according to article 60 of the administrative procedure law of the people's republic of china, mediation is generally not applicable to administrative litigation, but administrative compensation, compensation and administrative agencies exercising their discretionary powers as provided for by laws and regulations can be mediated. "in practice, in order to achieve the substantive resolution of conflicts and disputes, the court will still conduct mediation activities in various administrative cases, including those involving environmental resources, to facilitate the parties to reconcile and resolve disputes by withdrawing the lawsuit." li jie, a lawyer at zhejiang lunjian law firm, believes thatin the process of hearing this case, the kecheng court implemented the legal application of the linkage mediation mechanism, and the flexibility it demonstrated is worth learning from.
it is also worth mentioning that in the opinion of pu jingyan, partner of zhejiang zhenou law firm, the practice of incorporating the concept of green development into all aspects of the entire case handling process is also one of the important characteristics that distinguishes this case from general administrative litigation.
zhejiang is the birthplace of the concept of "green water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains". green development is also the background of zhejiang's high-quality development. the plaintiff company in this case used to be mainly engaged in large-scale mechanical processing, with high energy consumption and low production capacity. as the local government's goal of adjusting the green ecological industrial structure is promoted, it itself is also facing the need for transformation. the people's court gave suggestions after on-site investigation and helped the company find a new way for development.
after the successful mediation, the court continued to follow up on the implementation of the agreement. now, the company has successfully embarked on a new track.
we look forward to the powerful effects of judicial mediation, which will continue to make great contributions to the business environment and green development!
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