Exploration for the Theoretical Foundation of Environmental Public Interest Litigation

Environment is not an object of rights.And thus,both environmental right theory and public trust theory could not provide theoretical support for environmental public interest litigation.Environmental public interest litigation maintained majority interests,which is based on citizens' property rights and personal rights.Other theories do not need to be built.The private attorney doctrine and private enforcement doctrine reflected as state and power theories;civil prosecutive rights are on premise of existence of active citizens,which presents in relationship of individual and interest community.The community should be consisted of combination of people in a specific scope jointly determined by state,nation and natural environment.The member's responsibility to community provides theoretical basis of which citizens act as the private attorney general or public interest prosecutor.Therefore,the theoretical foundation of environmental public interest litigation lies in liability of citizen as a member of environmental interest community to common environmental interest.In fact,environmental litigation that maintains interests of majority is private interest litigation.Only when environmental litigation maintains collective interests,the environmental public interest litigation is what we need to build.