General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out during the 20th collective study in the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee that the Civil Code "has absorbed the excellent legal culture of the Chinese nation for more than 5,000 years". Article 9 of the law stipulates: "Civil activities of civil subjects should be conducive to saving resources and protecting the ecological environment." This principle and its specific legal provisions are important legislative explorations to deal with the current environmental problems, which is called "green principle", which is not only a great innovation in China’s civil legislation, but also the inheritance and development of China’s excellent legal culture.
The concept of green development and the ideological tradition of "harmony between man and nature"
The "green principle" in the civil code is a concentrated expression of green development and a powerful legal measure to ensure the survival and reproduction of human beings and the sustainable development of society. The general provisions designed in the general provisions, as well as various ecological norms of civil behavior formulated by the real right compilation, the contract compilation and the tort compilation, have consolidated the cornerstone of the rule of law for the construction of ecological civilization, and have obvious cultural inheritance with the traditional thought of "harmony between man and nature".
China’s ancient concept of environmental protection originated from the philosophical thought of "the unity of man and nature", and when it was implemented at the legal level, it became a legal thought to guide and regulate the relationship between human beings and nature. In the Warring States period, the representative work of the sage, Dead Bodies, said: "The four directions are up and down, and the past is the present." The ancients believed that man must keep unity with everything in the universe in order to survive for a long time. There is a systematic design of the Book of Rites, such as Meng Chunzhi’s Moon, "No logging, no nesting, no killing of children and insects, no flying birds, no eggs"; By mid-spring, "don’t exhaust the rivers and rivers, don’t drain the ponds, and don’t burn the mountains" embodies the ancient people’s ideas of protecting plants, animal resources and water resources. When the concept of "mutually supporting each other" is deeply rooted in people’s hearts, people think that protecting the environment and saving resources are natural and self-evident.
Eco-environmental protection and the institutional tradition of "banning hair by time"
As one of the key adjustment objects of the "green principle", ecological environment protection has many provisions in the specific provisions of the Civil Code. For example, in Articles 250 and 251, the state ownership system of natural resources and wildlife resources is established; In article 286, it is clear that the relevant behavior of the owner should meet the requirements of saving resources and protecting the ecological environment; Article 294 stipulates that the owner of real estate shall not abandon solid waste or discharge harmful substances in violation of state regulations; There is even a special chapter on "Responsibility for Environmental Pollution and Ecological Destruction" in the tort liability compilation, with seven provisions to strictly enforce the liability system for ecological infringement.
Protecting the ecological environment with the system has a long history in the legal history of our country. China was an agricultural society in ancient times, and its life rhythm was in the order of "spring planting, Xia Geng, autumn harvest and winter storage". Therefore, its legal system for the protection of natural resources has different provisions according to the different characteristics of the four seasons of the year. Some periods prohibit the use of it and some periods allow the development. The article "Xunzi Wang Zhi" called it "banning hair at the right time".
First of all, through the formulation of prohibitive legal norms to prevent the destruction of the ecological environment. Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals called it "the prohibition of four seasons", and related regulations appeared as early as in Yuxia. "Yu’s ban, in March of spring, the mountains don’t climb axes, so as to grow into vegetation; In Xia San, Kawasawa did not enter the net, so he became a fish and a turtle. " However, only prohibition without opening will not be conducive to the normal life of the people. Therefore, it is stipulated in the "Qin Bamboo Slips in Sleeping Tiger Land" that "it will be vertical in July." By the Han Dynasty, the relevant regulations were more detailed, which were recorded in documents such as Two-year Laws, Field Laws, Dunhuang Hanging Springs and Moon Orders, covering forest trees, animal resources and water resources. To the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was even a legal system to maintain the urban sanitation environment. "Tang Law Miscellaneous Law" stipulates: "Those who go through the walls and make filth, the staff is 60, … the master can’t help but be guilty of the same crime." "The Whole Tang Dynasty" recorded a precedent of "judging the ditch to the street", and the county magistrate punished the polluter with a stick of 60. After the parties appealed, the higher authorities supported the county magistrate’s judgment and rejected the appeal on the grounds that "the law has a constant ban, and the government is expensive to change the wind, so the punishment of deliberation is a decree code".
Secondly, take the initiative to rectify the ecological environment by formulating compulsory legal norms. Although the ecological problems faced by successive dynasties are different, the governance concept of environmental protection remains unchanged. No matter in the written code of laws and decrees, or in the government guidance documents such as "Collection of Agriculture and Mulberry" and "Agricultural Policy Encyclopedia", there are many orders to plant trees, fix soil and prevent sand, and build water conservancy projects to transform nature and optimize the environment. For example, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty once wrote a letter to "make the county state advise farmers to plant mulberry and trees". Tang Daizong also promulgated the System of Encouraging the World to Plant Mulberry and Jujube, requiring the people to "plant mulberry spines" and undertake the legal obligation of "planting 30 mulberry trees every year".
Resource conservation and utilization and the value tradition of "abstaining from extravagance and saving"
Saving resources is another key adjustment object of the "green principle", and the relevant provisions are very detailed in the specific provisions of the Civil Code. For example, article 326 stipulates that the usufructuary right holder shall abide by the provisions of the law on the protection and rational development and utilization of resources and the protection of the ecological environment; Article 346 stipulates that the establishment of the right to use construction land shall meet the requirements of saving resources and protecting the ecological environment; Article 509 stipulates that the parties shall avoid wasting resources, polluting the environment and destroying the ecology during the performance of the contract; Article 619 stipulates that the seller shall adopt a packaging method that is sufficient to protect the subject matter and is conducive to saving resources and protecting the ecological environment. These green clauses are the legal guarantee to avoid the waste of resources, and also the absorption and promotion of the tradition of "abstaining from extravagance and saving".
From the perspective of traditional culture, all things in nature are people’s friends, and we should treat them with a "benevolent" heart. The behavior of wasting resources may not only lead to ecological imbalance and be punished by nature, but also seriously violate the value requirements of "benevolence" Therefore, in the system design of saving resources, ancient laws mainly realized their value pursuit from two dimensions: on the one hand, they carried out the principle of prohibiting luxury. Extravagance is an important cause of waste of resources, which has been strictly prohibited by various regimes through legal means. According to the Five Elements Records of the Old Tang Dynasty, Princess Anle liked to make gorgeous costumes with the feathers of rare birds when she was in Tang Zhongzong, which caused the society to follow suit and led to "the feathers of exotic birds and animals in Jiangling were exhausted". It caused damage to the natural ecological chain of animals. Later, Xuanzong ascended the throne and ordered the burning of exotic clothes, and banned the wearing of gorgeous clothes such as splendid pearls and emeralds, which achieved good results of "catching and catching gradually, teaching the sun by the wind". Another example is that during Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was once popular to wear deer fetal crowns, which led to the near extinction of deer. Later, Renzong issued a decree prohibiting deer catching, which made "the deer fetus useless, and the gatherers were also absolutely". On the other hand, it advocates rational use of resources. The ancients realized the importance of resource regeneration and recycling long ago. According to Zhou Li, Zhou people began to divide land into three categories in the form of system in the development and utilization of land resources: first, land that can be planted every year without fallow; Second, one year of fallow and one year of arable land; The third is the land that can be planted for two years and one year. This method of fallow rotation is to avoid excessive consumption of soil fertility and ensure the productivity of subsequent farming.With regard to the rational utilization of wildlife resources, there is a "fishing with exhausted resources", so why not get it? And there will be no fish next year; If you burn the fields, won’t you get them? And there will be no animals next year. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Lu Xuangong fished in Surabaya in summer. Minister Rigg thought that the declaration of public welfare was against the season and was not conducive to the growth and reproduction of fish, so he cut off his fishing net. As the king of a country, Xuangong not only admitted his mistakes, but also praised Rige for his "good behavior" for Kuang Zhengjun.
