ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Health
Sec. Environmental Epidemiology
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvh.2025.1639758
Joint and Several Liabilities under China's Civil Code: Legal Innovations and Public Health Implications in Environmental Torts
Provisionally accepted
- China University of Political Science and Law, Changping District, China
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To protect the ecological environment and public health, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China establishes a multi-subject liability aggregation mechanism through Articles 1168-1172, introducing the joint and several liability system into the field of environmental tort. This study employs case analysis and a comparative law perspective to analyze the practice of this system in environmental litigation and its normative adaptability. The research finds that the Civil Code breaks through the traditional tort law paradigm through "expansion of liability subjects" and "inversion of the burden of proof," but requires legislative clarification and interdisciplinary coordination. Compared with international experience, China's system demonstrates unique values in liability allocation, risk prevention, and control, and its reform path provides reference for global industrial pollution governance.
Keywords: Joint and Several Liabilities;, environmental pollution tort;, health rights redress;, polluter accountability;, China's Civil Code
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tong Zhao, China University of Political Science and Law, Changping District, China
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