IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i8p5075-5106d39046.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Challenges for Sustainable Development and Its Legal Response in China: A Perspective for Social Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Tianbao Qin

    (School of Law/National Center for Collaborative Innovation on Judicial Civilizaiton/National Center for Collaborative Innovation on Territorial Sovereignty and Maritime Rights, Wuhan University, Luojia Shan, Wuhan 430072, China)

Abstract

With rapid development since the 1970s, China is entering a period of social transformation, which not only creates favorable conditions for sustainable development but also presents new challenges. The transitional period in China is a stage in which two types of social transformation coexist, the first is the social transformation from agricultural society to industrial society; the second is the transition from industrial society to postindustrial society. In this process of social transformation, new challenges arise for sustainable development in China. In the first layer of social transformation, we respond to the challenges presented by the social transformation through the establishment of basic principles of environmental law, legal enforcement mechanisms, basic legal regimes and so on. In the second layer of social transformation, the advent of a risk society raised new challenges to environmental law, including that of adjusting the function of environmental law, strengthening the precautionary principle, diversification of implementation mechanisms, and development of the preventive function of legal regimes. In order to better respond to these challenges, we should proceed with the following aspects: improve the legal functions of environmental law, including guaranteeing public security, ecological security and the coordination of multiple interests; expand and develop the content of the principle of prevention, and replace the polluter pays principle by the causer responsibility principle; combine administrative measures with economic incentives, and while setting government as the main executive body, effectively operate public participation mechanisms; expand the scope of environmental impact assessment of projects, and establish planning environmental impact assessment, build up and improve information disclosure system, and establish environmental risk assessment system and green tax system.

Suggested Citation

  • Tianbao Qin, 2014. "Challenges for Sustainable Development and Its Legal Response in China: A Perspective for Social Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-32, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:8:p:5075-5106:d:39046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/5075/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/8/5075/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Junfei Bai & Jill J. McCluskey & Hainan Wang & Shi Min, 2014. "Dietary Globalization in Chinese Breakfasts," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(3), pages 325-341, September.
    2. Xiaobing Wang & Adam Ozanne & Xin Hao, 2014. "The West's aid dilemma and the Chinese solution?," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 47-61, February.
    3. Raymond Fisman & Yongxiang Wang, 2015. "Corruption in Chinese Privatizations," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-29.
    4. Weibing Deng & Armen Allahverdyan & Bo Li & Qiuping Wang, 2014. "Rank-frequency relation for Chinese characters," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 87(2), pages 1-20, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Álvaro González Lorente & Montserrat Hernández López & Francisco Javier Martín Álvarez & Javier Mendoza Jiménez, 2020. "Differences in Electricity Generation from Renewable Sources from Similar Environmental Conditions: The Cases of Spain and Cuba," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
    2. Fang Yang & Shiying Pan & Xin Yao, 2016. "Regional Convergence and Sustainable Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Yuan Yang, 2019. "Reforming Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulation for Offshore Operations in China: Risk and Resilience Approaches?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Xuedong Liang & Dongyang Si & Xinli Zhang, 2017. "Regional Sustainable Development Analysis Based on Information Entropy—Sichuan Province as an Example," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuanyuan Yang & Shuwen Zhang & Dongyan Wang & Jiuchun Yang & Xiaoshi Xing, 2014. "Spatiotemporal Changes of Farming-Pastoral Ecotone in Northern China, 1954–2005: A Case Study in Zhenlai County, Jilin Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Zhiming Cheng & Russell Smyth, 2016. "Why Give it Away When You Need it Yourself? Understanding Public Support for Foreign Aid in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 53-71, January.
    3. Yufeng Luo & Haolong Fu & Seydou Traore, 2014. "Biodiversity Conservation in Rice Paddies in China: Toward Ecological Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Marson, Marta & Savin, Ivan, 2022. "Complementary or adverse? Comparing development results of official funding from China and traditional donors in Africa," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 189-206.
    5. Aldunate, Felipe & González, Felipe & Prem, Mounu & Urzúa, Francisco, 2020. "Privatization and business groups: Evidence from the Chicago Boys in Chile," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Yuan Quan & Chenxing Wang & Yan Yan & Gang Wu & Hongxun Zhang, 2016. "Impact of Inter‐Basin Water Transfer Projects on Regional Ecological Security from a Telecoupling Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-12, February.
    7. Ling Zhu & Dongmin Kong, 2023. "Corruption and privatization: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 217-239, January.
    8. Zhou, De & Yu, Xiaohua & Abler, David & Chen, Danhong, 2020. "Projecting meat and cereals demand for China based on a meta-analysis of income elasticities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Tao, Hongjun & Luckstead, Jeff & Zhao, Liang & Xie, Chaoping, 2016. "Estimating Restrictiveness of SPS Measures for China's Dairy Imports," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(B), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Yan, Xiaoyong & Minnhagen, Petter, 2018. "The dependence of frequency distributions on multiple meanings of words, codes and signs," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 490(C), pages 554-564.
    11. Andrikopoulos, Andreas & Merika, Anna & Merikas, Andreas & Sigalas, Christos, 2021. "Related party transactions and principal-principal conflicts in public companies: Evidence from the maritime shipping industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    12. Massa, Massimo & li, zhe & xu, niahang & Zhang, Hong, 2016. "The Impact of Sin Culture: Evidence from Earning Management and Alcohol Consumption in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 11475, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Donghui Wu & Qing Ye, 2020. "Public Attention and Auditor Behavior: The Case of Hurun Rich List in China," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 777-825, June.
    14. Gonzalez, Felipe & Prem, Mounu, 2021. "The Legacy of the Pinochet Regime," SocArXiv v5yjf, Center for Open Science.
    15. Agarwal, Sumit & Qian, Wenlan & Seru, Amit & Zhang, Jian, 2020. "Disguised corruption: Evidence from consumer credit in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 430-450.
    16. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Määttä, Ilari & Weill, Laurent, 2016. "What shapes social attitudes toward corruption in China? Micro-level evidence," BOFIT Discussion Papers 18/2016, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    17. Cheryl Long & Jing Zhang & Jin Yang, 2021. "Uncovering asset stripping during China's privatization," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 651-680, October.
    18. Fuxiu Jiang & Kenneth A Kim, 2020. "Corporate Governance in China: A Survey [The role of boards of directors in corporate governance: a conceptual framework and survey]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(4), pages 733-772.
    19. Lan, Xiaohuan & Li, Wei, 2018. "Swiss watch cycles: Evidence of corruption during leadership transition in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 1234-1252.
    20. Dong, Zhiqiang & Wei, Xiahai & Zhang, Yongjing, 2016. "The allocation of entrepreneurial efforts in a rent-seeking society: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 353-371.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:8:p:5075-5106:d:39046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.