The Rule of Climate Policy: How Do Chinese Judges Contribute to Climate Governance without Climate Law?

IF 2.6 1区 社会学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Mingzhe Zhu
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引用次数: 6

Abstract

Abstract China's climate governance is distinguished by the contrast between an abundance of policies on climate change and the lack of legally binding laws. This article argues that Chinese courts bridge this difference, which fosters a ‘rule of climate policy’ rather than a strict rule of law. The effective authority of Chinese climate policy is made possible in practice both by provisions of the Chinese Constitution and the prevailing use of legal reasoning. China's constitutional design of ‘ecological civilization’ delegates the duty and the power of managing climate change issues to the executive branch of its government. Most Chinese documents on climate governance have no binding legal force, which means, according to positive law, that they cannot serve as legal grounds for judicial decisions. Chinese judges, in deciding climate-related disputes, must combine legal provisions and non-binding materials to achieve regulatory goals. They use non-legal materials to support statutory or contractual interpretations and determine the existence or limits of rights, which alters the meaning and scope of existing legal terms and principles. This rule of climate policy is possible in the courtroom because judges justify public policy considerations with arguments of principle that are substantiated in various non-binding climate plans.
气候政策规则:没有气候法,中国法官如何为气候治理做出贡献?
摘要中国的气候治理以丰富的气候变化政策和缺乏具有法律约束力的法律之间的对比而著称。这篇文章认为,中国法院弥合了这种差异,形成了“气候政策规则”,而不是严格的法治。中国气候政策的有效权威在实践中既有中国宪法的规定,也有普遍使用的法律推理。中国“生态文明”的宪法设计将管理气候变化问题的职责和权力委托给了政府的行政部门。中国关于气候治理的大多数文件都没有约束力,这意味着,根据实证法,它们不能作为司法裁决的法律依据。中国法官在裁决与气候相关的争端时,必须将法律条款和不具约束力的材料结合起来,以实现监管目标。他们使用非法律材料来支持法定或合同解释,并确定权利的存在或限制,这改变了现有法律条款和原则的含义和范围。气候政策的这一规则在法庭上是可能的,因为法官们用各种不具约束力的气候计划中证实的原则性论点来证明公共政策考虑的合理性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
6.10
自引率
16.30%
发文量
29
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