Insider says that the Supreme People's Court of China is thinking about creating a tribunal to hear complicated environmental disputes and resolve increasing pollution problems in the country.

Xi Xiaoming, Vice-President of the Supreme People's Court stated in a conference in Beijing last month that the court intends to promote the construction professional juridical institutions to respond to the severe environmental disputes.

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On Friday, experts have confirmed the move to China Daily and said that an official announcement is expected within days although the court refused to comment on the issue.

Wang Canfa, an environmental law professor at China University of Political Science and Law affirmed the necessity of a 'green tribunal' due to the uniqueness of environmental cases.

"It can be hard to identify those responsible, damage can have been caused over a long period and both the environment and local residents can be affected," Wang said adding that setting up a government body specializing in such cases can uphold the role of the judiciary ensuring that the cases are resolved fairly.

Since 2007, over 130 environmental courts and tribunals have been set up by local governments to solve such problems and many have run out of environmental cases that they have started hearing environmentally irrelevant cases like divorce and hit-and-run.

Wang Mingyuan of Tsinghua University stated that one of the top priorities of SPC's tribunal should be researching and drafting pertinent legal explanations, releasing typical case studies and providing guidelines to lower-level tribunals on complex cases.

"The knock-on effect could be huge," Wang says stating that it would be a good idea to choose a group of intermediate people's courts to set up the environmental tribunal on a regional basis instead of launching tribunals on all levels.

TagsChinese Supreme People's Court, Environment, environmental tribunal