On the eve of the National Ecological Day, on August 14, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecological Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Forestry and Grass Administration, the National Cutural Heritage Administration and other 12 central and state organs jointly issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Cooperative Service of Law Enforcement and Justice to Ensure the Ecological Environment Protection and High quality Development of the Yangtze River Basin (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The Opinion puts forward overall requirements for strengthening the coordination between judicial and administrative law enforcement work. We must adhere to overall coordination and systematic governance, improve the integrated protection and systematic governance mechanism of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasses, and sands, and enhance the systematic, overall, and collaborative governance of the Yangtze River Basin. The Opinion provides specific measures to strengthen the coordination of law enforcement and judicial work from five aspects. One is to strengthen communication and consultation, focusing on key areas such as pollution prevention and control, the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, and sand mining management in rivers, as well as frequent and high incidence cases, unifying law enforcement and judicial standards and scales, and comprehensively improving the standardization level of law enforcement and judiciary. The second is to support law enforcement actions, adhere to the equal emphasis on handling cases in accordance with the law and promoting governance, and support administrative law enforcement agencies to carry out joint actions in cross administrative regions, ecologically sensitive areas, and areas with high incidence of ecological environment violations in the Yangtze River Basin in accordance with the law. The third is professional technical support, strengthening the construction of ecological environment assessment and appraisal institutions and expert teams, improving assessment and appraisal standards and norms, sharing expert databases, and focusing on solving the problems of difficult and expensive appraisal in practice. The fourth is information exchange and sharing, strengthening digital empowerment and information construction, promoting cross departmental big data collaborative case handling and situation reporting, and sharing judicial information data on ecological environment law enforcement in the Yangtze River Basin. The fifth is to diversify the resolution of disputes, strengthen the linkage between the government and the court, fully leverage the professional advantages of administrative law enforcement agencies, establish an organic connection between environmental and resource litigation and non litigation dispute resolution mechanisms, and properly resolve conflicts and disputes. The Opinion stipulates relevant measures to optimize the connection between law enforcement and judiciary from five aspects. One is the connection between case transfer, strengthening the connection between Yangtze River protection administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, environmental public interest litigation, and ecological environment damage compensation litigation. If criminal, civil, or administrative legal responsibilities need to be pursued, the case shall be transferred in accordance with the law. The second is cross domain jurisdiction coordination. For cases of environmental and resource crimes that involve cross administrative divisions, designated jurisdiction should be followed in accordance with requirements such as systematic governance, overall protection, specialized trials, and convenient litigation, and timely consultation with the same level judicial authorities should be sought. The third is the retrieval and use of evidence. If it is necessary to investigate and collect evidence, or access case files from relevant law enforcement and judicial agencies in handling environmental resource cases, the relevant agencies shall provide assistance and cooperation in accordance with the law. Relevant evidence materials can be used as evidence in accordance with the law after being verified to be true. The fourth is the overall coordination of legal responsibilities, clarifying the comprehensive and coordinated application of criminal, civil, and administrative legal responsibilities in accordance with the law. Those who actively fulfill their responsibilities for ecological environment restoration and compensation shall be treated as lenient circumstances in accordance with the law. The fifth is ecological restoration cooperation, strengthening cross departmental cooperation in ecological environment restoration, scientifically determining and implementing restoration plans, carrying out supervision and implementation of restoration work in accordance with the law, and jointly maintaining the restoration effect. The Opinion also stipulates cooperation arrangements for deepening law enforcement and judicial work in daily communication, joint research and training, co construction of rule of law bases, joint promotion of legal knowledge, and cooperation in foreign-related rule of law. (New Society)