From Peripheral Actors to Established Players: Environmental NGOs’ Participation Through Public Notice-And-Comment Procedures and Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the tightening control over civil society in China in the last decade, environmental NGOs’ participation in the regulatory process via legalized channels has increased. Drawing on participant observations, interviews, and court judgments, this article examines the recent dynamics of institutional participation of environmental NGOs through public notice-and-comment procedures and environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) in China. With stable opportunities for engagement, environmental NGOs have begun to turn themselves from peripheral actors into established players by helping identify and enforce violations, filling statutory gaps, and providing additional information and expertise in public notice-and-comment procedures and EPIL suits. While challenges remain, this article suggests that the practices of institutional public participation and changing citizen expectations hold great potential for promoting the pluralization of environmental regulation in authoritarian China.