Page 263 - 《水产学报》2026年第2期

2 期 水 产 学 报 50 卷

The dilemma and improvement of judicial appraisal of
damage to fishery resources in China

1,2*
DONG Chuanju , LI Yanhua 2,3
(1. School of Law, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China;
2. Research Center on Legal Issues Concerning Agriculture, Countryside and Farmers,
Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China;
3. School of Law, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

Abstract: With the annual increase in fishery resource damage in China, the number of related cases has also shown a growing
trend. To promote civil rights protection and combat criminal activities, it is extremely urgent to improve the judicial appraisal
system for fishery resource damage. From the perspective of the development process of legal norms, the regulations in China
regarding the forensic appraisal of fishery environmental damage, including the overall framework, appraisal subjects, and iden-
tification standards, have all been improved. At the practical level, significant progress has been made in various aspects includ-
ing appraisal subjects, scope of appraisal, causal relationships, damage assessment and restoration evaluation, as well as
appraisal technologies. However, due to the late start and insufficient attention given to environmental damage judicial
appraisal in China, persistent issues remain in fishery resource damage judicial appraisal, such as irrational allocation of
appraisal subjects, non-standardized adoption procedures, and inadequate support mechanisms. This is specifically reflected in
the fact that the number of appraisal institutions and personnel is small and their distribution is obviously unreasonable. A large
number of non-statutory institutions are widely involved in the appraisal work, which has affected the objectivity, authority and
effectiveness of the appraisal. The status of the inspection report is not clear, and there are loopholes in legal norms.. The virtu-
alization of procedural review and the absence of substantive review jointly lead to the non-standard acceptance procedures of
expert opinions and high appraisal costs and insufficient external support. To address these challenges, solutions should be
based on theoretical models of judicial appraisal management, collaborative governance theory, and public environmental
interests. In terms of subjects, developing diversified appraisal teams and establishing a fishery resource damage judicial
appraisal community are essential under the premise of unifying the current legal norms.. In terms of improving the acceptance
path, it is necessary to standardize the acceptance review system, clarify the nature of inspection reports, improve the expert
juror system, and implement substantive review of appraisal opinions are crucial. In terms of support and guarantee, it is neces-
sary to strengthen the government's environmental supervision responsibilities and increase financial investment. This paper
studies the current situation of judicial appraisal of fishery resource damage in China, focuses on the predicaments existing in
the operation process, and on the basis of analyzing their causes, puts forward improvement suggestions, aiming to provide
some references for promoting the high-quality development of judicial appraisal of fishery resource damage.
Key words: fishery resources; forensic appraisal; environmental damage; subject
Corresponding author: DONG Chuanju. E-mail:cjd1989@126.com
Funding projects: National Natural Science Foundation of China (31801032); Humanities and Social Sciences Research
Projects at Universities of Henan Province (2025-ZDJH-011); Henan Province Soft Science Research Project (252400410050);
Major Projects of Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences under the Ministry of Education (25JJD820001)

https://www.china-fishery.cn 中国水产学会主办 sponsored by China Society of Fisheries
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