Abstract:The (Draft) Ecological Protection Book of the Ecological Environment Code demonstrates a legislative orientation shifting from the protection of individual ecological elements to the holistic protection of ecosystems. However, by adopting a compilation approach that combines ecological protection laws with portions of natural resources laws, it presents a fragmented structure. This results in misalignments at the conceptual level, in the arrangement of books, and in regulatory functions. The construction of the ecological protection book’s legal system not only concerns the completeness of the Ecological Environment Code but also directly embodies the value orientation of a resource regulation law that transcends reductionism and anthropocentrism, establishing a legal order based on the equality and peaceful coexistence of humans and nature. Therefore, refining the draft should not be confined to technical amendments at the clause level to provide grounds for legislative dynamics, administrative regulation, and judicial application. It must stem from the philosophical foundations of ecological law to establish relationship protection as the normative backbone. By reorganizing the chapter structure through a progressive behavioral pattern-protection element approach, it should embed the concept of full-process protection and form an institutional system encompassing “prevention-protection-remedy and restoration”.

Keywords: Ecological Environment Code; Book on Ecological Protection; protection and sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems; relationship protection

 

Author:Liu Hongyan, professor and doctoral supervisor, Law School of the University of CASS; Wang Yuyang, doctoral candidate, Law School of the University of CASS.

Source:6 (2025) Journal of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law (The Rule of Law Forum).