Group photo of the workshop

On September 8, 2009, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences(YASS) as a partner of TAI in China, held a workshop on the joint enforcement mechanism for environment protection, environmental public interest lawsuit. More than 20 institutional stakeholders attended the workshop representing Yunnan Environmental Protection Department, Kunming Public Security Bureau, Kunming Peoples’ Prosecution, Kunming Peoples’ Courts), research institutes including Yunnan Institute of Environmental Sciences, local environmental NGOs, lawyers, media and entrepreneurs. The participants have shared and learned about the three topics by joint analysis, reflection, interaction in the workshop:　 *Analysis on Strength and Weakness, Advantages and disadvantages of the Joint Law Enforcement Mechanism *Presentation of the institutional stakeholders and reflection of the participants about: Environment public interest lawsuit: Challenges and Prospects *Special section about technical expert testimony: Technical bottlenecks in the practice and the future The discussion is moderated by Ms. Liang Chuan who is an expert on moderation. All the participants have highly evaluated the interactive process and the outcome of the workshop which can be used by decision makers. Better understanding about the roles of the stakeholder institutes has been achieved. The collaboration as well as the respective autonomy of lawyers, media practitioners, judiciaries, and attorney, administrators, and technical experts is crucial to the legal justice in environmental cases. Policy recommendations are made based on the workshop outcomes.