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A study on the standing issues in civil and administrative litigation in environmental cases

  • DONG-A LAW REVIEW
  • 2010, (46), pp.121-144
  • Publisher : The Institute for Legal Studies Dong-A University
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law

Ji Won Park 1

1단국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

One of the legal requirement for a lawsuit that is frequently visited in environmental law is the issue of standing to sue. To bring a environmental litigation, whether it is civil or administrative, a plaintiff is required to have “appropriate individual interest”. To sue an administrative agency, the plaintiff must demonstrate standing by showing that he or she has “legal interest to revocate agency's action”. Korean Supreme Court has repeatedly held that “legal interest means individual, direct, concrete interest protected by legislation on which agency's action is based”. The Court relied on a “zone of interests” test until 2006, which means citizens only living within the zone of environmental impact assessment may have legal interest. However, it changed its views by conferring standing to the out-of-the-zone citizens in 2006. However, the Supreme Court has still maintained its opinion that “legal interest cannot be found for the general, indirect, abstract interest which is commonly enjoyed by general citizens”. Hence non-governmental organization(hereinafter, “NGO”), which doesn't possess any property within the zone in its name, has never been conferred standing. This view of the Court covers most of the environmental dispute, however, there is a loophole. Even though the plaintiff suffers no individual, concrete harm, the society as a whole may still be injured by pollution, the animal extinction, etc. But it is also risky to give general standing to all citizens, because the court has already had enough caseloads they cannot handle. Hence, I suggest to give NGO standing to sue in a limited circumstances where no one can claim injury despite of real harm to the nature. To prevent frivolous lawsuit, appropriate NGO with standing should be qualified by the Governmental Agencies or Courts before it files a complaint.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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