2018.6.14
Nadine Cheng
To regulate the registration and administration of institutions engaged in judicial assessment of environmental damage and continuously improve the capabilities of such institutions and their personnel, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Ecological Environment jointly formulated the Detailed Rules for Reviewing the Registration of Environmental Damage Judicial Assessment Institutions (the “Detailed Rules”), which were promulgated and came into effect on June 14, 2018. Consisting of a main body and five annexes, the Detailed Rules regulate how experts evaluate the technical conditions and capabilities of a legal person or any other organization applying to engage in judicial assessment of environmental damage.
According to the Detailed Rules, after an applicant institution for judicial assessment of environmental damage submits the application materials, if a provincial judicial administrative agency decides to accept the application for review, it shall, in conjunction with the provincial ecological and environmental authority, randomly select and confirm review experts from the review expert database for the registration of judicial assessment institutions for environmental damage to organize a panel based on the items to be reviewed. Each item shall be reviewed by no less than three experts, and at least one must be from the national database. The experts shall score the items one by one according to the scoring criteria stipulated in the Detailed Rules, and the average will be used as the final score of each item. The total score shall be 100, of which personnel qualifications, technical capabilities and facilities and equipment shall be weighted at 2:5:3.
An annex titled “The Requirements for the Professional Capabilities of Institutions Engaging in Judicial Assessment of Environmental Damage and the Personnel Thereof” to the Detailed Rules set forth the specific requirements and conditions for registered access by such institutions and their personnel over seven categories, such as the identification of pollutants, surface water and sediment, air pollution, soil and groundwater, offshore ocean and coastal zones, ecosystems and other environmental damage assessments. The Detailed Rules further strengthen the communication and collaboration mechanisms between the provincial judicial administrative agency and the ecological and environment authority in the registration and review process for environmental damage judicial assessment institutions. For example, the provincial judicial administrative agency will organize and proceed with the expert review jointly with the provincial ecological and environment authority, work together to resolve any difficulties and issues encountered in the expert review process and ensure that the expert review work is carried out smoothly.
The Detailed Rules provide a clear basis for the expert review process. The promulgation of the Detailed Rules is significant in objectively, fairly and accurately evaluating the capabilities of legal persons or other organizations applying to engage in judicial assessment of environmental damage, and in pushing for standardized and systematic administration of the judicial assessment of environmental damage.