A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Courts in Sweden and China

The numbers of environmental courts and tribunals have been increasing tremendously in the twenty-first century in various countries. Facing with the challenges of environmental disputes explosion, China has to keep up with the trend. A system of environmental courts from institution to procedure rules has been established according to the Swedish Environmental Code of 1999. In contrast, the environmental courts in China are far from perfect, and the reforms of the envi- ronmental courts lack unified legal grounds, specific structural design, and clear procedure rules. An analysis concerning the origin and development, standing, the composition of judges, the litigation costs of the Sweden environmental courts will be revealing and beneficial for the bettering of the Chinese environmental courts system.