Legal Indicators for public participation inenvironmental impact assessment
Haifeng DENG
Law School of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2018-09-23

1PART ONE
Range of Participants

1Range of Participants
classifications of public

Units and individuals
Article 6 of Environmental Protection Lawof the People's Republic of China allunits and individuals shall have theobligation to protect the environment andshall have the right to report on or filecharges against units or individuals thatcause

pollutionordamagetotheenvironment.
Article 6 of Regulation on Environmental
ImpactAssessmentofPlanningprescribes  any entity or individual has
the right to report to the examination andapproval organ of planning, planning
preparation

organorenvironmental

protection administrative department any
violation of this Regulation or bad impact
arising during the execution of planning.

Units and residents
Article 14 of Construction
Project Environmental
Protection Management
Regulations prescribesthat if a construction unit
prepares an environmental
impact report, it shall, inaccordance with therelevant laws andregulations, solicit theopinions of the relevant
units and residents at theplace where theconstruction project islocated.

legal persons or otherorganizations
Article 15 of Interim
Measures for Public
Participation in
Environmental Impact
Assessment says thatthe public being
consulted must include
representatives ofcitizens, legal persons
or other organizations
affected by theconstruction project.

EIA
Article 5 of theEnvironmental Impact
Assessment Law
stipulates that theState encourages
relevant units, experts
and the public toparticipate inenvironmental impact
assessments in an
appropriate manner.

1Range of Participants

02. public domain

01.investigation of
public opinion andconsulting experts.
02. public domaincriteria for determining participants aresufficient, including geography,occupation, professional knowledge
background, ability to express, degreeof influence, and other factors.

Ø directly affectedpublic ,Range ofParticipants

Ø the public that are notdirectly affected,

04.Public

The scope of the public is understoodby the above definition. It should be all
citizens, legal persons and otherorganizations.

According to the article 15 of the Interim Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment, theconstruction unit or its entrusted environmental impact assessment agency and the environmental protection
administrative department shall, in consideration of factors such as geography, occupation, professional knowledge
background, expression ability, and degree of influence, reasonably select citizens, legal persons or other organizations
that are solicited for opinions.

2PART TWO
Public Participation Methods

Public Participation Methods
Article 11 of Environmental Impact
Article 21 of Environmental Impact
Assessment Law, the planning
Assessment Law, in addition to theorganization of the special plan shall, onsituation where the state requires
the plan that may cause adverseconfidentiality, the construction project,environmental impacts and directlythat may have a major impact on theinvolve the public environmental rights
environment, should prepare anand interests, hold a demonstration
environmental impact report, themeeting, a hearing, or other forms before
construction unit shall hold athe draft of the plan is submitted fordemonstration meeting, a hearing before
examination and approval, and solicit
submitting the environmental impact
relevant units, experts and the public
report of the construction project, or takecomments on the draft environmental
other forms to seek advice from relevant
impact report, except where the stateunits, experts and the public.
requires confidentiality.

Article 3 of Regulation on Environmental
Impact Assessment of Planning, theplanning organization shall take the formof questionnaires, symposiums,
argumentation meetings, hearings, etc. for
special plans that may cause adverse
environmental impacts and directly
involve public environmental rights, before
the draft of the plan is submitted for
examination and approval and publicly
solicit opinions from relevant units,
experts and the public on theenvironmental impact report. Unless thelaw requires confidentiality

The Environmental Impact Assessment Law only rules public hearing, discussion session or exhibition as
the basic participation methods granted.

Public Participation Methods
WHOHOW
Article 14 of Interim Measures for Public Participation
in Environmental Impact Assessment, the public may,after the relevant information is disclosed, use the letter,
fax, e-mail or other means required by the relevantannouncement to the construction unit or its entrusted
environmental impact assessment agency, theenvironmental protection administrative director
responsible for approving or re-examining theenvironmental impact report, submit written comments.

TIMES
Article 13 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in
Environmental Impact Assessment, after theadministrative department of environmental protection
publicly solicits opinions in accordance with the methods
stipulated in the first paragraph of this Article, theconstruction projects with greater public opinions may be
publicly solicited by investigating public opinions,consulting expert opinions, symposiums, argumentation
meetings, hearings, etc.

Article 12 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in En
vironmental Impact Assessment, the construction unit or its
entrusted environmental impact assessment agency shall p
ublicly solicit public opinions by investigating public opinions, consulting expert opinions, symposiums, argumentation
meetings, and hearings, after publishing the information bul
letin and publishing the environmental impact report.
Article 13 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in En
vironmental Impact Assessment, the administrative department of environmental protection shall, after accepting theenvironmental impact report of the construction project, announce the relevant information received by the environme
ntal impact report on its government website or by other means convenient to the public.

WHERE
Article 12 of Interim Measures for Public Participation
in Environmental Impact Assessment, the construction
unit or its entrusted environmental impact assessment
agency shall notify the relevant units and individuals inwriting of the time, place and main issues of thesymposium or argumentation meeting 7 days before
the symposium or argumentation meeting.

3PART THREE
Adequate consideration of Opinions

Adequate consideration of Opinions
the opinion publication list
Article 17 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment, theconstruction unit or its entrusted environmental impact assessment agency shall seriously consider the
public opinions and attach a description of the adoption or non-admission of public opinions in theenvironmental impact report.
The administrative department of environmental protection may organize an expert advisory committee toreview the description of the adoption of public opinions in the environmental impact report, judge its
rationality and propose treatment suggestions.
When making the approval decision, the environmental protection administrative department shallseriously consider the handling suggestions of the expert advisory committee

Article 18 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment, if the publicbelieves that the construction unit or its entrusted environmental impact assessment agency has not
adopted the public opinion and has not attached a statement, or the reasons for the failure to adopt thepublic opinion are not established, it may report to the environmental protection administrative
department in charge of approval or re-audit. And with clear and specific written comments. The
environmental protection administrative department responsible for approval or re-examination may, if
necessary, verify the public opinion.

Adequate consideration of Opinions
Article 11 of Environmental Impact Assessment
Law, the planning organization of the special
plan shall, on the plan that may cause adverse
environmental impacts and directly involve thepublic environmental rights and interests, holda demonstration meeting, a hearing, or otherforms before the draft of the plan is submitted
for examination and approval, and solicit
relevant units, experts and the publiccomments on the draft environmental impact
report, except where the state requiresconfidentiality.

Article 12 of Interim Measures for Public Participation in En
vironmental Impact Assessment, the construction unit or its
entrusted environmental impact assessment agency shall
publicly solicit public opinions by investigating public opinions, consulting expert opinions, symposiums, argumentation meetings, and hearings, after publishing the information
bulletin and publishing the environmental impact report.

the construction unit

PUBLISHED

opinions should be published.
explanation of why the opinions of relevant entities,

Article 13 of Interim Measures for Public Partici
pation in Environmental Impact Assessment, the administrative department of environmental protection shall, after accepting the environment
al impact report of the construction project, announce the relevant information received by theenvironmental impact report on its government
website or by other means convenient to the public.

experts and the general public is accepted or rejected.
Article 21 of Environmental Impact Assessment Law, in addition to the situation where
the state requires confidentiality, the construction project, that may have a major
impact on the environment, should prepare an environmental impact report, theconstruction unit shall hold a demonstration meeting, a hearing before submitting theenvironmental impact report of the construction project, or take other forms to seek
advice from relevant units, experts and the public.

the administrative department ofenvironmental protection

EIA ----Legal Institutions

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THANKS FOR YOUR WATCHING
Haifeng DENG