作者：竺 效
作者介绍：中国人民大学法学院副教授，中国人民大学民商事法律科学研究中心研究员、博士生导师
出版日期：2015年4月9日
内容提要 《侵权责任法》第65条是否适用于因破坏生态造成他人损害的情形,在当前司法实践中存在困惑,在学理上存在争议。以环境科学、生态学关于"环境"的基本概念为出发点,"生态环境"并非一个科学的用语,仅可与"生活环境"并列用于非环境、非生态领域。而《侵权责任法》之"准历史解释"所谓的"污染生态环境"实质上指污染自然环境,对称于污染人工环境。因此,该法第65条所规定的"因污染环境造成损害"的致害原因行为不包括破坏生态的行为。基于污染环境和破坏生态的行为两分法,2014年修订的《环境保护法》第64条将《侵权责任法》扩大适用于因破坏生态造成损害的情形,以立法对我国环境侵权责任之原因行为的范围进行了拓展,这一新法、特别法上的立法发展具有国际先进性。
关键词 污染环境 破坏生态 环境侵权 原因行为
Abstract: There remain some doubts in judicial practice and in academic discussion whether article 65 of Tort Liability Law of the PRC is applicable when ecological damage actions occur and cause harm to others. With the generic concepts of “ environment ” in environmental or ecological Science as the starting point，“ ecological environment ” is not a scientific usage，but rather a term paralleled with “living environment”，which is used in the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field instead of the environmental or ecological field. However，in the “ quasi-historical ” legislative interpretation of Tort Law，the so-called “pollution of ecological environment” actually signifies the pollution of natural environment, which is relative to artificial environment. The act of environmental pollution，by which “ any harm is caused”，as stipulated in article 65 of the Tort Liability Law, does not include the behavior of ecological damages. Due to the dichotomy of the type of acts between environmental pollution and ecological damages，the tort liability that one should assume when his behavior of ecological damages causes harm to others，is expanded to the application of article 65 of the Tort Liability Law, as provided in article 64 in the newly revised Environmental Protection Act in 2014. This rule expands the range of acts that lead to tort liabilities by the way of new legislation, which has reached international advanced level in environmental legislation.