Daily Penalty System under Revision of the Marine Environment Protection Law in China: Review and Prospect

Abstract

The strictness of legal liability for the marine environment protects the marine space of China. Designed to impose the most severe punishment for polluting marine environmental violations, the use of a daily penalty system in maritime legislation has been developed from scratch and from the national to the local levels. Based on Article 73 of The Marine Environment Protection Law, the introduced factors, application, and innovative regulations of the daily penalty system are also hereby discussed. Although substantial progress has been made, the daily penalty system still faces two major obstacles, i.e., shortcomings in The Marine Environment Protection Law and the imperfection in the marine supporting laws, regulations, and local legislation. To this end, to provide an effective guarantee for marine administrative law enforcement and fundamentally solve the problem of the low law-breaking cost, the liability design of the daily penalty system should be improved by expanding the application scope, increasing the daily fine quota, and formulating specific applicable standards adaptable to the marine environment. In this case, a reference can also be provided for the revision of The Marine Environment Protection Law in China. Additionally, it is also suggested to enhance the relevant provisions of marine supporting laws, regulations, and local legislation.