China: The Long March toward a Virtuous Environmental Legal Framework

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter presents a review about the history of how China’s environmental legal framework was built up.

Methodology/approach

The chapter explores environmental legal framework development through two paths: political path and the associated judicial path. It tries to connect the political slogans of China, under each leadership since the “Opening Up” in 1978, to the legislative development on environmental issues.

Findings

Regardless of each leadership’s political slogans, China’s economic reform and legislative development had always revolved around the objective – “revive China and its economy in the world,” which had been set by Deng Xiaoping. The “sustainable development,” that as a guiding principle, has already been incorporated into Five-Year Plans as well as China’s environmental legislation since economic reform.

Originality/value

Compared with previous research on this area, the pragmatical approach of this investigation confirms the originality of the research. Literature on this topic, in fact, hardly investigates China’s environmental issue by combining the analysis of the political and the legal perspectives.

Citation

Zhang, L. (2016), "China: The Long March toward a Virtuous Environmental Legal Framework", Spigarelli, F., Curran, L. and Arteconi, A. (Ed.) China and Europe’s Partnership for a More Sustainable World, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78635-332-020161027