法律法学专业论文外文翻译--国家环境政策法文献翻译-中英文对照论文翻译

中文2040字

法学

外文文献翻译

题目: 对重大环境污染事故罪的立法思考姓名: 专业: 法学

班级: 法学

第二部位外文文献翻译原文

国家环境政策法

National Environmental Policy Act Nancy K. Kubasek, Gary S. Silverman Environmental Law, Fourth Edition, Cambridge University Press，2003 National Environmental Policy Act

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970, and may be characterized as a planning statute. It does three things directly:

1. Establishes the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the federal watchdog of environmental policy

2. Requires federal agencies to take environmental consequences into account when they make certain decisions, which prior to NEPA, they could not do because consideration of such effects was rarely listed in agencies' enabling acts as a factor to be taken into account in agency decision making

3. Requires that an environmental impact statement (EIS) be prepared for every major legislative proposal or other federal agency action having a significant impact on the quality of the human environment

Council on Environmental Quality

The least controversial aspect of NEPA was its first mandate: the creation of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), The CEQ is made up of three persons, one of whom is designated the chair. The role of the council is primarily advisory, mainly advising the president about environmental matters. The CEQ gathers and analyzes data, informs the president about the progress the nation is making toward cleaning up the environment, and recommends legislation that needs to be passed and issues that needs attention. Every year the CEQ uses the data it gathers to publish the President's Annual Report on Environmental Quality, which is available to the public.

The CEQ also helps federal agencies to meet their EIS requirements under NEPAby reviewing drafts of these statements. The CEQ establishes regulations pertaining to NEPA procedures.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

Far more controversial than the creation of the CEQ was the requirement of the environmental impact statement (EIS). This requirement has a widespread impact on several government agencies, as well as on private firms seeking to do business under governmental agency contracts or licenses. Although the process has been criticized by many of the groups affected, most studies of NEPA’s effectiveness have concluded that it has forced greater governmental awareness and more careful planning in many agencies.

Several major issues pervade an analysis of the EIS requirement, ranging from who must file the EIS, and when, to disputes over what must be included in the statement, to whether the process is effective.

Threshold Considerations

Every time a federal agency undertakes an activity, it must decide whether to file an EIS. Filing an unnecessary EIS is a waste of time and money. Failure to file a necessary statement can be equally or more expensive if someone challenges the lack of an EIS and seeks an injunction. However, it is not always easy to know when an EIS is required. NEPA specifies three conditions that must be met for an EIS to be required. First, the activity must be federal. A federal activity is fairly

broadly defined. If, for example, a private sector construction firm wants to construct a building that requires a government license or if the project is going to be partly financed by a government loan, the licensing or lending agency is undertaking a federal activity.

Whether an EIS is required for a federal activity depends on whether the other two criteria are met. The federal activity must be major. There are no dollar guidelines as to what constitutes a major activity. The courts generally say that the activity requires a substantial commitment of resources, with resources being broadly defined to include both financial and human resources. A substantial commitment of either type of resources is sufficient.

The third criterion is that the proposed activity must have a significant impact on the human environment. The phrase significant impact on the human environment is so ambiguous that it initially generated substantial litigation. Then, in 1979 the CEQtried to resolve some of the controversy by adopting a series of guidelines for the implementation of NEPA’s procedural provisions. In these guidelines, the CEQ tried to define better what was meant by "significant impact". The CEQ stated that determining the significance of an impact

necessitated examining both the context and the intensity of the action. Looking at the context was said to require consideration of both the short-and long-term effects of the activity and looking at the impact of the activity on the local area, the region, and society as a whole.

Procedure Under the EIS Requirement

One of the major criticisms of the EIS process is related to the time-consuming nature of the procedures necessary for preparing an EIS. Initially, the agency required to file the EIS will assemble a team of specialists to prepare a draft report. In many cases, this team will consist of outside consultants, many of whom may have a vested interest in preparing positive assessments so that they will be able to secure contracts from the agency in the future. Next, a draft version will be circulated within the agency, to be reviewed by several parties. There may frequently be disputes between reviews who are pro-agency or pro-industry and those who are more environmentally concerned. The draft may be revised as a result of these initial comments.

Following the agency's completion of that draft, the document goes to the CEQ for review and comments. Then, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act's rules for

informal rule making, the draft is published in the Federal Register for public comment. Many other agencies, including the EPA, will submit comments at this time, as will citizens' groups and business interests.

After the public comments have been received, a similar process will be followed for the final draft. If a draft has been severely criticized, the agency is faced with the difficult decision of whether to try to repair the heavily criticized draft or months. Preparing a new draft is time-consuming and costly because all the steps have to be repeated with the new statement. However proceeding with an inadequate EIS may lead to a successful legal challenge by parties opposed to the action. Once the agency is satisfied with its final draft, it publishes it in the Federal Register. For a routine EIS, this entire procedure may take from 6 to 9 months. Court challenges may tie up the process for a year or longer.

After publication of the final draft, the sufficiency of the draft may be challenged in court. The failure to file an EIS when required may also be challenged. This process of judicial review of the EIS has led to criticism by environmentalists. Whenreviewing the EIS, the court generally operates in an administrative law tradition, which means that

the court will not substitute its judgment for the agency's. As long as the agency followed the proper procedures and included the requisite elements in the EIS, the court will allow the EIS to stand and the agency action to court. Under no circumstances can a party contest the weight given by the agency to any adverse consequences listed in the statement. The court will never forbid an action on the grounds that the consequences are too severe.

第二部位外文文献翻译

国家环境政策法

库巴塞克，西尔弗曼

环境法（第四版），清华大学出版社，2003 国家环境政策法（NEPA）于1970年1月1日签署生效，而且将被定性为一个规划章程。它包括了以下三个方面的内容：

1、建立了监管环境政策的环境质量委员会（CEQ）

2、这之前，因为考虑到当他们做出某些决定，会对环境造成一定的影响，而这种影响也很少为某些机构制定相关政策来扶持，所以NEPA不能要求联邦机构采取造成相应环境后果的措施政策

3、要求环境影响报告书（EIS）准备的每一个主要立法建议或其他联邦机构的行动，都产生于能产生重大影响质量的人文环境环境质量委员会（CEQ）

NEPA的第一项任务是解决最有争议的问题：建立环境质量委员会（CEQ）。CEQ由三人组成，其中一人被指定主持会议。CEQ的作用是咨询，主要是提供总统关于环境问题的相关咨询。CEQ负责收集和分析数据，通知总统有关国家正在进行的环境清理的进展情况，并对需要注意和解决的问题通过立法的方式固定下来。每年CEQ使用其收集的数据向公众发布总统的年度环境质量报告。

CEQ也有助于联邦机构根据NEPA的要求，通过审查这些报表的草案，制定相应的程序以满足其EIS的要求。

环境质量报告书（EIS）

远比设立CEQ更具有争议性的是环境影响报告书（EIS）的要求。这个要求对一些政府机构具有广泛的影响，同时，对于私营公司而言，也影响到其通过与政府机构间的合同和政府机构出具的许可证去寻求做生意的途径。尽管这一进程被许多受到影响的群体批评，大多数研究环境保护的效力已经结束，但它依然迫使政府在更多的机构中设置环境保护相关的工作以及制定更为细致的环境保护规划。

从谁必须提交EIS，何时提交，一份声明中必须包含何种纠纷的解决方式，以及环境影响的测评进程等是否有效等等若干个重大问题的分析中，都充分贯彻了EIS的要求。

阈值的思考