Developing An Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime In China

This book explores the complex package of mechanisms used to identify, record, manage and remediate contaminated land, including the system for allocating liabilities that has been set up by China’s contaminated land law and accompanying administrative decrees and environmental standards. Statutory control of soil or land contamination is a comparatively new phenomenon for Chinese lawmakers and researchers. After more than ten years of preparation, China recently adopted its first nationwide contaminated land law—the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Contamination, which entered into effect in the beginning of 2019. The law deals exclusively with risk management in connection with soil contamination, and the remediation of contaminated land. This book analyzes various facets of how China is managing the risks associated with soil contamination and remediating contaminated sites by means of legislation. Chapters 1 and 2 reveal the current extent of the soil contamination problem in China and the initial policy responses of the country’s central government. In turn, Chapters 3 and 4 address the regulatory frameworks and the latest contaminated land legislation at both the local and national level. Lastly, Chapters 5 through 9 offer concrete recommendations, based on lessons learned in the US and UK, for reforming contaminated land management in China. Overall, the book covers the past, present and future of contaminated land management in China, making it of interest to environmental policymakers, administrators, academics, lawyers and engineers engaged in soil or environmental protection. Further, it offers a source of reliable information for those who want to learn more about China’s environmental legislation and contaminated land management policy.

This book focuses on how to create an environmentally friendly society in China from the viewpoint of environmental law and policy. The authors accessed a great number of valuable sources not available in English, and interviewed various scholars and public officials, in order to analyze the environmental policies in China while comparing some of the features to Japan. The book stresses the importance of introducing a brand-new policy of central and local government, and analyses why these policies have not been executed effectively in the local society. In addition to the economy-oriented policy and spirit of the Chinese nation, which are the main causes, this book also highlights shortcomings in the inspection system, information management, and the extremely low degree of public participation as important aspects to focus on in order to tackle the current problems. The individual chapters will help readers to understand the environmental issues in China in depth, and provide guidance on resolving the issues in China and in developing countries that are now or soon will be facing the challenge of combining economic growth and environmental improvement. Air, water and soil pollution are serious challenges in China. The deterioration of the environment often leads to rioting that influences social stability, which is also a great concern to foreign investors. This book will be of interest to a professional audience such as policymakers, journalists, members of environmental NGOs, managers and employees who do business with China, as well as academic researchers and students.

This book reviews the progresses and achievements made in the past 20 years of research on soil pollution and remediation in China, and presents 50 review and research articles from all over China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. The authors include scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and managers from 26 universities, 18 institutes, 4 leading enterprises and 2 government environmental protection departments. The contents cover fundamental research on soil pollution and remediation, technical development, project demonstration, policy and governance. The polluted soil/site types include farmland, industrial sites, mining areas and oilfields, with heavy metals (cadmium, arsenic, copper, chromium, mercury, lead, zinc, nickel, etc.), organic pollutants (PAHs, PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, phthalate esters, halogenated hydrocarbons, etc.), and metal–organic mixed pollutants. The remediation techniques mainly include physical and chemical remediation (thermal desorption, soil vapor extraction, in situ advanced chemical oxidation, solidification and stabilization), phytoremediation (phytostabilization, phytoextraction by hyperaccumulators, phyto-prevention by low accumulation plants), bioremediation (microbial adsorption and immobilization, microbial degradation, microbe-enhanced phytoremediation), and combined remediation merging multiple technologies. The governance and policy section mainly explores laws and regulations, criteria and standards, financial guarantees and the industrial market for soil environment and pollution prevention.

This book details various stages in the introduction, establishment and evolution of China’s environmental management system. By combining a literature review, comparative analysis, and case study, it investigates the environmental management system in several key periods in order to systematically assess the necessary measures and appropriate adjustments the Chinese Government implemented to reconcile the growing conflicts between economic development and resources conservation, in the context of rapid economic growth and economic transformation. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for experts, scholars, and government officials in related fields.

This Handbook is the first comprehensive account of comparative environmental law. It examines in detail the methodological foundations of the discipline as well as the substance of environmental law across countries from four vantage points: country studies from all continents, responses to common problems (including air pollution, water management, nature conservation, genetically modified organisms, climate change and energy, chemicals, waste), foundational components of environmental law systems (including principles, property rights, administrative and judicial organisation, command-and-control regulation, market mechanisms, informational techniques and liability mechanisms), and common interactions of environmental protection with the broader public, private, and criminal law contexts. The volume brings together the foremost authorities in this field from around the world to provide a concise, self-contained, and technically rigorous account of environmental law as a single overall system.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive review of the salient content and major developments of environmental law in transitional China. The core concepts, basic mechanisms and key challenges of Chinese environmental law are discussed, extending the fro

Sustainability and food production represent a major challenge to society, with both consumption and supply sides posing practical and ethical dilemmas. This book shows that food governance issues can occur in many ways and at many points along the food chain. The risks and impacts, particularly with the increasing globalisation of food systems, are often distributed in unequal ways. It is the role of law to form the pivot around which these issues are addressed in society in the form of food governance mechanisms. The chapters in this book address a range of issues in food governance revolving around questions of justice, fairness, equality and human rights. They identify different issues regarding inequality in access and control over food governance. Some address generic governance and institutional issues across a range of international contexts, while others present case studies, including from Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, UK and West Africa. The book offers directions for reform of the law and legal institutions to mitigate the dangers of inequality and promote greater fairness in food governance.

Developed by an international team of historians, sociologists, political scientists and economists, this collection is the most comprehensive reader of the history of Sino-Italian relations currently available in the English language.