Legal Weapon: New Law Interpretation Aims to Reduce Pollution

"Legal Weapon" is an action packed buddy cop film...No, wait, that's something else. Legal weapons, or should we say, "new judicial interpretations" for laws, are what experts say will now protect us from environmental pollution.

China's top court and procuratorate jointly issued a new interpretation of laws this week against illegal polluting, according to the Global Times. The new interpretation lowers benchmarks for convictions and imposes harsher punishments on offenders. Before now, Chinese law did not clearly stipulate what activities could result in criminal charges. Now we all know discharging, dumping or treating radioactive waste or waste containing infectious disease pathogens into sources of drinking water and nature reserves can land you up to seven years in prison.

Naysayers at the Environment and Resources Law Committee of the All China Lawyers Association warn that, given the amount of GDP some of the heavy polluters are bringing in, local governments may be reluctant to enforce the law.

The whole story is available here.