Environmental protection is mainly the focus of environmental law in China, but as China has started to pursue ecological civilization, its civil law has begun to respond to environmental problems as well, which is called the “greening of civil law”. As a result, the newly passed General Provisions of Civil Law adopted a “Green Principle” requiring private actors to contribute to resources conservation and environmental protection in civil activities. Through normative and comparative analysis, this article explores the establishment of the “Green Principle”, the rationales for civil law’s response to environmental problems in China, the progress already made, and the further efforts that are needed. It argues that the major challenge for the greening of China’s civil law at present is the modification of the subsequent sections of the forthcoming civil code. Despite the progress that has already been made, further efforts are needed regarding the following aspects: environmental and resources protection should be taken into account in contract rules concerning the validity, performance, and interpretation of contracts, and rules on emission trading contracts should be added; the property section should stipulate the unified exercise of state ownership over natural resources; and the “personality rights” section should stipulate environmental rights so as to clarify the right that is violated in environmental public interest litigation.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013, is an unprecedented mega-project that aims to improve connectivity between China and over 70 countries through infrastructure investment and regional cooperation. It has unparalleled potential to bring about positive economic development across vast regions of the world but, at the same time, may inevitably come with considerable environmental challenges. Even so, opportunities exist to prevent or mitigate environmental risks and realize China’s promise of a green BRI. China has proposed to construct a green BRI. The existing environmental law framework of host states, green development practices by China and BRI participating countries, and the role of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as well as multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) all increase the odds of a green BRI. This article contributes to existing BRI-related literature by examining the environmental challenges and opportunities of the BRI and providing suggestions on building a comprehensive environmental protection mechanism. It is suggested to stringently implement environmental norms and green BRI policies, make greater use of BITs and MEAs, bring together various actors, mobilize all available resources, and establish an efficient environmental dispute settlement and environmental remediation system.

The recognition of the intrinsic value of the environment and natural resources contributed to the establishment of liability for damage to the environment per se, which, coupled with the traditional environmental tort liability, constitute the double facets of environmental civil liability. Although the two facets share some common characteristics, their distinct focuses indicate that they cannot be fully covered by tort law or environmental law systems alone. As a result, an international trend toward the regulatory approach to environmental civil liability, which is referred to in this article as the “separate-regulatory paradigm”, is emerging. In such a pattern, as followed by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), environmental tort liability and liability for environmental damage are mainly regulated by tort law and environmental statutes, respectively. However, China, relying substantially on its civil law system to address liability for environmental harm, seems to deviate from this paradigm. This article analyzes the significance of the separate-regulatory paradigm and argues that it has profound implications for China. This article suggests a separate statutory liability scheme that moves beyond the existing Chinese civil law framework to achieve the full recovery of environmental damage.

The China–Japan–Korea Free Trade Area and the Northeast Asia energy interconnection have great potential for further development but have some common obstacles. The negotiations for the China–Japan–Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the construction of the Northeast Asia energy interconnection can complement each other: the former provides a legal framework for the latter and the latter facilitates the former. This paper analyses the legal issues in constructing the Northeast Asia energy interconnection, in the context of the China–Japan–Korea FTA negotiations, and then proposes that based on the characteristics of energy, the legal issues can be resolved by referring to the existing provisions of international law and relevant rules, within the China–Japan–Korea FTA.