Abstract

On March 6，2015，General Secretary Xi Jinping attends the meeting with Jiangxi delegation during the 3rd Session of 12th NPC and emphasized that environment is the people’s livelihood，green hills are beauty and blue sky is happiness. Ecological environment should be protected like our eyes and be treated like our lives. Those who caused environmental damage should be severely punished without giving them any excuses. As the development of economy and society，our natural environment continues to deteriorate and the environmental problem becomes an outstanding issue. As we are entering the risk society，environmental problem is becoming more and more important. Any carelessness will cause serious environmental pollution accident，which brought great threat to natural resource and people’s normal life. Natural environment is the basis for human life，it is very important. Use the law to protect the environment from destruction became the consensus of legislators. However，in the course of development of human society，damage to the environment never stops，and becomes more and more serious. At last，environmental crime resulting. As a new crime，environmental crime and has brought worldwide attention. Continue to improve environment-related civil，administrative and criminal legislation on the environment developed a strict，clear standards of conviction and sentencing of the crime，crack down on environmental crimes are the current major issues facing lawmakers. However，the legislation on the protection of the environment from destruction at the same time，not enough attention to environmental crime victims. Theory and practice are controversial.

As the most powerful weapon to fight crime，great attention has been paid to environmental crime legislation. We can say that after the implementation of the 8th criminal law amendment，environmental criminal legislation is becoming more complete and has been played an immediate role in fighting environmental crimes. But unfortunately，theorists，practitioners especially jurisprudence does not give too much attention to the counterpart of environmental perpetrator，which are the environmental crime victims. As previously said，scholars in the field of environment crime are concerned about the improvement of environmental crime legislation，which included adding new environmental crimes，improving applicable principles of penalty and penalty types of environmental crime and so on. Indeed，the improvement of environmental crime legislation can provide the necessary preconditions for the protection of the rights of environmental crimes victims. But relying solely on combating environmental crime cannot give adequate protection to victims. In the field of crime victim research，scholars have always focused on violent crime，financial crime and other types of crime. Environmental crime victim has been playing “outside” role and has been forgotten for a very long time. With the increasingly serious environmental crime，protection of the rights of environmental crime victims began to attract the attention of scholars. However，due to unique of environmental crime，although the rights of victims are gradually being recognized today，protection of the rights of environmental crime victims is still facing many challenges. The reason of challenge is mainly because of the special nature of environmental crime itself. For example，the consequence of environmental crime is much more sustainable and the environmental crime itself is hard to be discovered. Therefore，compared to traditional types of crime，environmental crime victims are more difficult to get fair and equitable treatment. As the rights of victims are gradually being recognized，the rights of environmental crime victims deserve our recognition and protection. At present，the focus is on how to further improve the environmental criminal legislation.

The improvement of environmental crime legislation is a precondition for protecting the rights of environmental crime victims. Without perfect legislation，environmental perpetrator cannot be brought to justice and the rights of victims are impossible to be realized. Therefore，to build a sound environment criminal legislation is the primary task of protecting the rights of victims. Since the implementation of the 8th criminal law amendment，our environmental criminal legislation has made great progress and “a major environmental pollution accident，causing serious consequences for public and private property suffered heavy losses or human casualties” is no longer the incriminating condition of environmental pollution crime. The amendment not only reduces the incriminate standard of environmental pollution crime，but also more conducive to protect the environmental crime victims. However，there is a need to further improve the existing environmental crime legislation，including the establishment of potential damage offence，the introduction of strict liability，the improvement of environmental crime types and environmental penal system.

Of course，the improvement of environment criminal legislation is very important，because the criminal legislation is the precondition for the protection of the rights of environmental crime victims. However，criminal legislation is not enough，we also need to help environmental crime victims to get out of predicament，which include giving them economic assistance and actively help them to restore their lives. In the course of the proceedings，the rights of environmental crime victims should also be fully guaranteed which provide proper protection for the relief of victims.

Therefore，this paper focuses on the protection of rights of environmental crime victims and constructs protection system for the rights of environmental crime victims from two angles. This protection system allows the environmental crime victims to enjoy and exercise their legitimate rights legally as well as to obtain due compensation. On one hand，we focus on the lack of protection in the course of proceeding and construct the protection system of rights of environmental crime victims by improving criminal justice and protecting their procedural rights. Environmental criminal justice is the basis of protecting the rights of environmental crime victims and the results of the trial determine whether the victim’s demands can be realized. With the establishment of environmental courts，the environment criminal justice opened a new chapter. However，due to the special nature of environmental crime，the establishment of environmental courts cannot solve all problems. As we all know，evidence is hard to obtain in environmental crime and it is difficult to prove causality. All those problems lack are still plaguing the judiciary. Thus，to solve these problems，we need to build the environmental offset forensic institutions，use a variety of causal relationships and further enhance the professionalism of the judiciary. Meanwhile，in the course of the trial，we must fully protect the procedural rights of victims of environmental crimes，including fully guarantee the right of victims of environmental crime，giving environmental crime victim discretionary right to make recommendations and conditional right to appeal. On the other hand，we focus on the lack of protection outside the course of proceeding and construct the protection system of rights of environmental crime victims by improving environment crime legislation and building compensation system for environmental crime victims.

We will build a broader environmental relief system of victims of crime，provide necessary information on basic theories，use international experience for reference，according to the relevant research results，design environmental crime victim relief system in China，discuss the environmental crime victims compensation system and to explore environmental victims compensation legislation. Mining environmental crime victims’ prevention and remedy measures，make up the lack of protection in the process of environmental crime victims，reflect the Humanities concern. Perfection of environmental criminal law，environment，civil law，environmental protection law-related laws and regulations，through the construction of the relief system of victims of crime，environmental crime victims take legal weapon，from the entity，procedures，system to protect their due legal rights.

Keywords：Environmental Crime；Victims；Legal Protection；Right Remedy；State Compensation