Lv Zhongmei: In-depth Research on the Fundamental Issues of Codifying the Ecological and Environmental Code
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "We must summarize the experience of codifying the Civil Code and timely promote the codification of legislation in fields where conditions are ripe." The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made strategic deployments for deepening the reform of the systemic framework for ecological civilization [1] and explicitly proposed the "codification of an Ecological Environment Code." The codification of an Ecological Environment Code is a major measure to comprehensively promote the construction of a Beautiful China [2] on the track of the rule of law and to realize modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature; it possesses great significance for the era, as well as theoretical, practical, and global significance. To deeply study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, we must strengthen research into the theory and practice of codifying the Ecological Environment Code, serving its high-quality development with high-level legal research results.
Grasping Legislative Conditions
A code is an important symbol of the civilization of the rule of law and a systemic microcosm of a nation's legal standing. As a high-level form of national legislation, the greatest characteristic of a code is that it is comprehensive, systematic, and integrated; consequently, it requires more stringent legislative conditions than general legislation. Judging from the experience of codifying China's Civil Code and the practices of other countries, sufficient theoretical preparation, the realistic demands of economic and social development, and a profound legislative accumulation are essential conditions for codification. We must profoundly grasp the various legislative conditions for codifying the Ecological Environment Code, fully recognize the necessity, feasibility, and urgency of this task, continuously strengthen our confidence and determination, and utilize all resources and favorable conditions to contribute an Ecological Environment Code with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese ethos [3] to the world.
Possessing a solid theoretical foundation. Theory is the precursor to action. Since the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the construction of ecological civilization, emphasizing that "only by implementing the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law can we provide a reliable guarantee for the construction of ecological civilization." Under the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, "ecological civilization construction" and "building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful" have been written into the Constitution, becoming the common will of the Party and the people. Consequently, the system of ecological civilization institutions supported by law has been continuously improved. Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization condense our Party's regular understanding [4] of the construction of socialist rule of law and the development of the civilization of the rule of law, as well as the regular understanding of ecological civilization construction. They contain powerful truths and practical might, providing the fundamental adherence and guide to action for codifying the Ecological Environment Code.
The existence of strong realistic demands. In the New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between the people's ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. From "hoping for food and clothing" to "hoping for environmental protection," and from "seeking survival" to "seeking ecology," the demands of the masses for democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and the environment are increasing daily. At the same time, China’s economic and social development has entered a stage of high-quality development characterized by accelerated green and low-carbon transitions. The coordination of high-quality development and high-level protection remains an arduous task. The construction of ecological civilization is still in a critical period where pressures overlap and the burden remains heavy. There is an urgent need to focus on building a Beautiful China and to continuously improve the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity. Codifying the Ecological Environment Code has become an inevitable choice for using the mindset and methods of the rule of law to meet the new expectations of the people for a beautiful ecological environment.
The formation of a comprehensive legislative system. Since the Reform and Opening-up, through long-term efforts, China has formed a legal system for ecological and environmental protection covering more than 30 laws, over 100 administrative regulations, more than 1,000 local regulations, and numerous national ecological environment standards. These legislative achievements have attracted worldwide attention. However, it must also be noted that because previous ecological environment legislation adopted a decentralized model lacking systematic thinking, legislation scattered across sectoral laws—such as civil law, administrative law, and economic law—suffers from overlap and incoordination, leading to obstacles in legal application and affecting the quality and efficiency of law enforcement. Codifying the Ecological Environment Code is conducive to enhancing the systematic, holistic, and synergistic nature of ecological environment legislation. Furthermore, since China formulated its first Environmental Protection Law in 1979, the academic community has conducted systematic research on ecological environment legislation and accumulated rich results, providing academic support for the codification of the code.
Seeking Models and Methods
The codification of the Ecological Environment Code must confirm the achievements of ecological civilization construction in the New Era in legal form, transforming concepts and requirements—such as "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [5] and "jointly building a global ecological civilization"—into legal principles and systems. This is a legislative task involving a wide range of areas and strong practicality. We must proceed from reality, base our work on national conditions, and conduct in-depth research on the choice of the code's model, logical framework, and codification methods to provide beneficial academic reference for the legislature to compile a code that reflects the people's will and is effective in practice.
Researching a rational model. Generally speaking, there are two models for the systematization of law: the "basic law + separate laws" model and the "codification" model. The former, due to its decentralized structure, often finds it difficult to prevent separate laws from decoupling from or violating the constraints of the basic law. The advantage of codification lies in its relatively complete logical system, which can better reflect the democratic, scientific, comprehensive, predictable, and operable nature of legislation, facilitating uniform legal application. However, how to maintain openness is an issue that requires attention. We should deeply analyze the experiences and lessons of other countries in environmental codification, analyze the differences between the Ecological Environment Code and the Civil Code, and study the role of a "moderate codification" model—which combines the advantages and characteristics of both the basic law and codification models. This involves incorporating foundational, principled, and common legal systems into the code, and while repealing some laws, retaining relevant separate laws. This approach enhances the systematic nature of ecological environment legislation while maintaining a degree of openness to overcome the drawbacks of mechanical rigidity.
Constructing a logical framework. Since the end of the 20th century, the rise of "domain-based disciplines" [6] has become a notable intellectual phenomenon globally. Domain-based disciplines refer to problem-oriented, comprehensive emerging disciplines that converge various disciplinary methods to solve the crises facing humanity. Ecological and environmental protection possesses the characteristics of a domain-based discipline. In China, as legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields continues to strengthen, and under the influence of domain-based disciplines, "domain law" [7] has gradually become a legal concept parallel to "sectoral law." Ecological environment legislation has the nature of "domain law," being problem-oriented and synthesizing various legal adjustment means. This means that as a "domain law," the Ecological Environment Code has a logical structure different from the Civil Code (which focuses on civil rights, the core value of private autonomy, and adjudication rules) and different from an administrative code (which focuses on administrative power, the core value of administration according to law, and management norms plus administrative procedures). Instead, it takes the legal issues of ecology, environment, and resources as its main thread, harmony between humanity and nature as its core value, and integrates management and adjudication norms, as well as substantive and procedural norms. Codifying from the "domain law" nature of the Ecological Environment Code is conducive to achieving an organic unity of systematic form, institutional rationality, procedural smoothness, structural openness, and systemic stability.
Improving codification methods. Codification is neither the reformulation of new laws nor the simple collation or mechanical copying of existing laws; rather, it needs to be based on a certain theory of codification, coordinating the methods of "enacting, amending, repealing, interpreting, and codifying" [8] to achieve internal consistency, mutual support, and logical self-consistency across all rules. Currently, research on the codification methods and methodology for the Ecological Environment Code is not yet deep enough; we must urgently mend these "short boards" and strengthen weak links. We must root ourselves in the fertile soil of China's excellent traditional legal culture, deeply study and fully absorb codification techniques of the Chinese Legal System [9] such as "embedding the Way in the technique" (yù dào yú shù), "having both codes and rules" (yǒu diǎn yǒu zé), and "grouping by category" (yǐ lèi jù piān). We should draw on the successful experience of the Civil Code to edit, revise, systematically integrate, and sublimate current ecological environment legislation—which was formed in different historical stages with different legislative purposes and mixed technologies—to extract more perfected legal norms. The objects of codification include not only current legislation but also relevant judicial practices; we must also do well in bridging the transition between "legislative reasoning" (lìfǎ lùn) and "judicial reasoning" (sīfǎ lùn). In legislative reasoning, law is the object of thought; in judicial reasoning, law is the basis of thought. We must timely step out of legislative reasoning and be adept at seeking the rational form and content of codification from the perspective of legal application, so that the code better meets the needs of law enforcement and justice.
Strengthening Academic Innovation
The Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed the codification of the Ecological Environment Code, indicating that the mode of ecological environment legislation is shifting from "enacting one as it matures" to synergistic advancement, and from a focus on creation to the coordination of creation and cleanup, codification and interpretation. It places greater emphasis on enhancing the sustainable development capacity of the law. The process of researching and codifying the Ecological Environment Code is also the process of constructing an autonomous Chinese knowledge system for ecological environment law. To ensure that various social relations in the ecological environment field are properly adjusted, social behaviors are orderly regulated, and the legitimate rights and interests of all parties are effectively protected, we must strengthen innovation in legal theory research and support the codification with an autonomous Chinese knowledge system of ecological environment law.
Advancing conceptual innovation. The codification must be based on legal concepts with clear connotations and extensions. First, we must take current laws, administrative regulations, intra-Party regulations, and local legislation as research objects. On the basis of serious research into their legislative backgrounds, historical origins, normative content, contradictions, and weaknesses, we must systematically sort through the concepts involved in the construction of the rule of law for ecological civilization. We must distinguish original terms, borrowed terms, technical terms, policy terms, and judicial terms, and extract "legal language" (fǎyán fǎyǔ) based on fundamental concepts such as the ecological environment, environmental rights, and sustainable development. This will form a category system consisting of basic and specialized concepts from the general provisions to the various parts of the code, providing a solid conceptual foundation for transforming decentralized legislation into an internally consistent code.
Focusing on problem-based innovation. Currently, the academic community has achieved some results on issues such as the legislative conditions for codification. However, we must clearly see that research on the axiology and praxeology of the Ecological Environment Code is still relatively insufficient. For example, basic theoretical research remains at the level of academic conception; research on foreign codes is not deep enough; attention to China’s practical problems is insufficient; and there is little innovative research capable of solving China's actual problems. Problems are the driving force for deepening research. In codification research, factual judgment and value choice are the most important issues and are the growth points for academic innovation. We must be adept at raising new questions and achieving new results, driving the Ecological Environment Code to better reflect the advanced experience of China’s rule of law construction in ecological civilization regarding factual judgment, and to better reflect Socialist Core Values regarding value choice.
Realizing methodological innovation. The direction for codifying the Ecological Environment Code has been determined; next, we must build the most reasonable "roads and bridges" to solve methodological problems. We must properly handle the relationship between socio-legal methods and doctrinal (dogmatic) methods, and between holist and reductionist methods, distinguishing the applicable objects and contextual differences of different methods. Researching the various social factors and constraints involved in legislation requires socio-legal methods, using economic, sociological, and other social science research means to grasp the social factual issues involved. Doctrinal methods are used to analyze the thinking process and practical experience of legal application, which is significant for summarizing legal rules. At the same time, we must "see both the trees and the forest," using holist methods to analyze the complex systemic problem of "harmony between humanity and nature" faced by the code, while also using reductionist methods to observe individuals and elements within this complex system. This ensures the correct handling of relationships between power and rights, public and private interests, and humanity and nature. We must establish a high degree of methodological consciousness, integratedly apply different research methods, and promote the integrated innovation of different methods to generate a research synergy where "one plus one is greater than two."