On the afternoon of March 9th, the 14th National People's Congress Constitution and Law Committee held a plenary session to review the draft of the Ecological Environment Code, the draft of the National Unity and Progress Promotion Law, and the draft of the National Development Planning Law in accordance with the deliberation opinions of various delegations. The members of the Constitution and Law Committee unanimously believe that as the fundamental law in the field of ecological environment, the promulgation of the Ecological Environment Code will have a significant impact on the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution, forming an ecological environment legal department led by the Ecological Environment Code and composed of relevant specialized laws. The promulgation and implementation of the Ecological Environment Code will mark the substantive conditions for ecological environment legislation to constitute an independent legal department in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. It is necessary to establish it as an independent legal department to ensure the vitality of the Code, exert its system effectiveness, and promote the continuous improvement of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. ”Lv Zhongmei, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Vice Chairman of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee, said in an interview with the Legal Daily. Lv Zhongmei suggested that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress declare the Ecological Environment Law as an independent legal department in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics in an appropriate and timely manner. The compilation of the Ecological Environment Code has been completed, essentially forming an independent legal system distinct from administrative and economic law departments. ”L ü Zhongmei said. Lv Zhongmei introduced that in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics that has been basically established, ecological environment legislation is not an independent legal department, and current relevant legislation belongs to two major departments: administrative law and economic law. Lv Zhongmei said that since the promulgation of the first Environmental Protection Law (Trial) in 1979, China has formulated more than 30 laws, more than 100 administrative regulations, and more than 1000 local regulations, basically forming a comprehensive legal system based on the Environmental Protection Law, covering pollution prevention and control, resource and energy conservation and recycling, ecosystem and special geographic space protection, etc. However, the legislation of different legal departments has both overlapping and conflicting effects in adjusting objects, value goals, regulatory mechanisms, and institutional systems, which affects the overall effectiveness of legal implementation. Changing this situation and using codification to achieve systematic, holistic, and collaborative legislation on ecological environment is the internal driving force and important goal of compiling ecological environment codes. "Lv Zhongmei pointed out that the draft has achieved a modern legal transformation from" administrative regulation to diversified co governance, "" element management to ecological governance, "and" from single protection to coordinated development, "presenting four distinct characteristics - reflecting the unique thinking of ecological environment legislation, constructing a legal discourse system for ecological environment protection, establishing unique protection objects and adjustment methods for ecological environment law, and demonstrating the dual leading functions of domestic and international law. The urgent requirement for the implementation of the Code is to clarify the independent legal status of the Ecological Environment Law, which is an urgent need for the implementation of the Ecological Environment Code. ”L ü Zhongmei said. Lv Zhongmei pointed out that after the review and approval of the Ecological Environment Code, its implementation needs to go through many stages such as cleaning up and improving existing relevant legislation, supporting law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, interpreting legal applications, and promoting and popularizing the code. If after the promulgation of the Ecological Environment Code, the understanding and application of different provisions in the same code return to the "old track" of its original legal department's value position and application method, the unity of ecological environment law will be impossible to talk about, and the systematic benefits pursued by the compilation of the code will also be greatly compromised. After the completion of the compilation of the Ecological Environment Code, a major task is to clean up the existing reserved laws and regulations belonging to different legal departments. Lv Zhongmei pointed out that theoretically, all legal and regulatory clean-up should be carried out according to the value judgment standards of the Ecological Environment Code. However, at the operational level, if this task is still fragmented and attributed to different legal departments, especially the clean-up of administrative regulations, local regulations, and related norms, it will be difficult to truly implement, and the leading role of the code's own system logic and general provisions will be weakened. Lv Zhongmei said that the Ecological Environment Code is based on the overall and interrelated nature of ecological environment issues, and has constructed a system of "harmonious coexistence between humans and nature", "green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver", "integrated protection and restoration of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasses and sands", and "coordinated and unified high-level protection and high-quality development", as well as cross disciplinary and cross regional collaborative legislation, joint law enforcement, and judicial cooperation mechanisms. If it is understood and implemented by different legal departments, departmental interests and technical barriers, fragmented standards, and conflicting responsibilities may still exist, making it difficult to achieve true "overall coordination". The independent status of the legal department is a prerequisite for establishing independent disciplinary directions and cultivating composite ecological environment legal talents in legal education. If the status of an independent legal department is still not established after the promulgation of the Ecological Environment Code, it will seriously affect the transformation of China's independent concept system, institutional system, and discourse system of ecological environment law that has been constructed in the Ecological Environment Code into a knowledge system, which is not conducive to the formation of the discipline system of ecological environment law and affects the cultivation of corresponding specialized talents. ”L ü Zhongmei said. The compilation of the Ecological Environment Code provides an important carrier for showcasing China's achievements in ecological civilization and rule of law construction to the world system, and contributing to China's governance wisdom. Lv Zhongmei pointed out that if the Ecological Environment Code is not established as an independent legal department after its promulgation, it will affect the application of the rule of law and legal methods to protect the ecological environment in China, the dissemination and influence of Chinese wisdom, and not be conducive to demonstrating China's significant contribution to the civilization of human rule of law in the 21st century. Separating the Ecological Environment Law from other departmental laws and confirming its independent status in the socialist legal system is a profound need related to the effectiveness of legal implementation and the realization of national strategies, as well as an urgent need for the implementation of the Ecological Environment Code. ”L ü Zhongmei said. The declaration of the independent legal status of ecological environment law by activating the effectiveness of the legal code system is a landmark achievement in improving the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics. ”L ü Zhongmei said. Lv Zhongmei introduced that in the basically formed legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, ecological environment law has no place and belongs to the categories of administrative law department and economic law department, which was formed before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the construction of ecological civilization has been included in the overall layout of the "Five in One" of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The 2018 constitutional amendment included "ecological civilization construction" in the constitution, added the national goal of "beauty", improved the State Council's management function of ecological civilization construction, and established the fundamental role of ecological environment protection in national development. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further clarifies the need to coordinate the establishment, reform, abolition, interpretation, and compilation of laws, and improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution. The decision made at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to compile the Ecological Environment Code is a major measure to improve the legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics through the compilation of the code. In Lv Zhongmei's view, the completion of the compilation of the Ecological Environment Code is an important achievement of "domain based legislation" in the legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It not only produces a legal text, but also gives birth to an emerging legal field with unique adjustment objects, comprehensive adjustment methods, independent normative system, and significant strategic value. Therefore, establishing it as an independent legal department within the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and declaring it in an appropriate manner is the inevitable logic and key measure to consolidate the achievements of codification, activate the effectiveness of the legal system, and improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics