[Case brief]

The oceanic bureau of Caofeidian District, Tangshan City, the enforcement applicant in this case, issued a letter of administrative decision numbered Tang Cao Hai Zhi Chu Fa [2017] No. 001 on January 20, 2017 to Lanhai Caofeidian Co., Ltd. (“Lanhai”) due to the construction of the second phase sea wall project in the southeast section of Caofeidian Industrial Park by Lanhai without obtaining an authorization for sea area use. According to this letter of administrative decision, the following administrative punishment was imposed to Lanhai: 1. Returning the illegally occupied sea area and recovering the sea area to the original state; 2. Paying a fine of RMB 433.116 million. After Lanhai received this letter, it did not initiate an administrative lawsuit and paid the fine according to the Item 2 of the punishment. However, it failed to perform the Item 1 of the punishment. On September 20, 2017, the enforcement applicant urged Lanhai to perform the Item 1 of the punishment within a specified period. However, Lanhai failed to perform the Item 1 within the period. Thus, the enforcement applicant applied to the Court on October 19, 2017 for enforcement of the Item 1 of the punishment.

[Judicial decision]

After examination, the Court considered that letter of administrative decision numbered Tang Cao Hai Zhi Chu Fa [2017] No. 001 was issued by the applicant according to legal procedures, with adequate evidences and based on correct applicable laws. Thus, the Court made the decision on April 23, 2018 that the letter of administrative decision numbered Tang Cao Hai Zhi Chu Fa [2017] No. 001 should be enforced, and authorized the oceanic bureau of Caofeidian District, Tangshan City to organize the enforcement.

[Significance]

Strengthening marine environment protection is an important part of the “marine power” strategy of China, and the Party central committee and the state council attach great importance to the environment protection and management for the Bohai Sea. It is clearly required in the Opinions of the State Council on Comprehensively Strengthening Ecological Environment Protection and Pollution Control (Zhong Fa [2018] No. 17) to perform well the comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea and to quicken the resolution of key ecological environment problems in the Bohai Sea. Illegal sea reclamation is a key problem in the comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea. However, as most sea reclamation works involve ports, pipelines, factories or other projects and have high investment and large sea area use, the courts are incapable in enforcement relating to such projects. In addition, some illegal sea reclamation projects belong to historical problems occurred during local development, so it is not appropriate for the courts to simply demand demolishing of the works before launch of unified disposal policies. In this case, after fully investigating the underlying sea reclamation project and relevant national management regulations, and based on the actual needs in case handling, the Court innovatively used the approach of “separated decision and enforcement” for the underlying illegal project, that is permitting the enforcement and authorizing relevant government departments to organize the enforcement. The proper closing of this case safeguarded the implementation of national marine environment protection policies and orders and the seriousness of marine administration enforcement, and developed feasible approach for resolution of illegal sea reclamation enforcement cases, providing effective judicial support for protection of the ecological environment of the Bohai Sea and high-quality development of marine economy, and achieving unification of legal effect and social effect.