China to blacklist environmental damage judicial expertise institutions

BEIJING — China will establish a blacklist of third-party judicial expertise institutions of environmental damage, the Ministry of Justice said on June 4.

The move is part of the ministry’s efforts to improve management on judicial expertise of environmental damage, said a ministry statement.

The institutions will be blacklisted if they charge excessive fees, intentionally delay the process, reject the appraisal cases without proper reasons, and collude with certain parties in a case to compromise the results, the statement said.

The list will be published promptly and provided for parties who seek judicial expertise.

Local judicial departments were told to tighten supervision over the blacklisted institutions and push them to correct wrongdoings.

If the institutions pass the remedy review and behave in the following six months, they will be removed from the list, the ministry said.

There are 111 institutions and over 2,500 appraisers for environmental damage judicial expertise in China.