Wednesday 4 July 2018

UK environmental lawyers to train Chinese judges

A group of environmental lawyers from Britain have travelled to China to train judges in the city of Beijing.

Lawyers from ClientEarth have organised a set of seminars this week, in collaboration with the Supreme People’s Court, for more than 300 judges.

They are part of a wider group of senior judges and environmental experts from across the world who will share cases from their jurisdictions.

In recent years, China is said to have established more than 600 environmental courts at all levels of the judiciary.

They handle all kinds of environmental disputes, including criminal cases such as wildlife poaching, civil cases such as personal or environmental damages from pollution and administrative cases where the government violates laws that damages the environment.

ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: “The importance of training Chinese environmental judges cannot be overestimated. It is the decisions of these judges which must protect the environment in the world’s largest developing country. The effectiveness of China’s emerging system of environmental laws ultimately depends on them.”