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| Origin, Structure and Function of Environmental Lawsuits of US Citizens |
| ZHUANG Si-si, LI Chun-lin |
| Law School of Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350108 |
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Abstract Due to slack law enforcement of administrative organs and the inefficiency of traditional common law, the United States achieved little in environmental improvement after WWII. The “Clean Air Act” issued in 1970 created a new form of litigation intended to protect environmental public interest, which signified a new phase of US environmental governance. With unique and advanced designs, the environmental lawsuits of American citizens play a powerful monitoring function, a benign balancing function, an effective complementary function, a strong remedial and restructuring function, which prompts administrative organs to strictly enforce the law, enterprises to obey the law, and therefore pushes forward environmental governance in US.
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Received: 06 April 2017
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2017, Vol. 34 
