"Typified"Determination of Causality of Environmental Tort Liability in Third Party Governance of Environmental Pollution
The diversity of actors,the multiplicity of behaviors,and the complexity of causal relationships in third-party governance of environmental pollution have increased the difficulty for people's court to determine the causal relationship of tort liability,leading to a"theoretical ambiguity and vastly different expressions"in the judgment documents.The causal relationship between infringement and damage consequences,as one of the constituent elements of infringement liability in third-party governance of environmental pollution,urgently needs to be guided by the principle of"polluter responsibility"and based on identifying the identities of"polluters"and"non polluters"to establish a"typified"identification path.In the case of meaningful communication between pollution discharge enterprises and pollution control entities,both are"polluters",and the causal relationship between their respective actions and damage consequences should be determined using the causal relationship inference theory.In the case of no intentional communication between the pollutant discharge enterprise and the pollution control subject,one of the two parties must be the"polluter",and the causal relationship of their tort liability should be determined using the causal relationship presumption theory,the other is a"non-polluter",and the determination of the causal relationship of their tort liability should adopt the theory of equivalent causal relationship.