The Supreme People's Court of China appoints Senior Judge Deng Xuelin to handle environmental cases and lead its newly established Environmental and Resources Tribunal.

According to China Environmental News, the new state tribunal would give a 'unified guidance and coordination' to the 134 specialist environmental courts set up by local governments to hear complex environmental cases in the country.

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The local environmental courts' "very informal" manner of handling lawsuits against powerful government-backed polluters has taken its toll since many environmental cases filed through them have been rejected and ignored, according to litigators.

Struck by many pollution scares and scandals, China made a vow to undo some of the damage done by 300 years of economic growth to Mother Nature in spite of the struggle to impose environmental laws on giant industrial enterprises and government bodies that protect them.

The national government has promised to create legal channels to allow the public to take action against law-breakers but is reportedly overwhelmed by the number of cases and the lack of resources to resolve every environmental issue at once.

On a positive note, the high court's guidance for the local environmental tribunals is said to have a huge "knock-on effect" by providing necessary guidelines and pertinent legal explanations regarding these complex cases.

According to a previous report from China Daily, experts still believe that it can "promote the role of judges to ensure that cases are resolved fairly."

TagsSupreme People's Court, Deng Xuelin