The Dilemma of Benchmarks for Environmental Administrative Penalty and Its Optimization

Initial progress has been made since the campaign for discretionary benchmarks in controlling the abusement of administrative penalty powers was launched. The campaign originated from social governance of grassroots. The discretionary benchmark has gained bottom-up recognition, and has become a critical component of the system of administrative law. In practice, swift and forceful progress has been made in benchmarks for administrative discretionary. However, the institutional framework of benchmarks for environmental administrative penalty (BEAP) has not yet been fully described and analyzed in existing theoretical research and practices. The findings of this study are as follows. The construction of BEAP should be grounded in functions. It focuses on the entire process of enforcement of environmental law and should be guided by values and functions, with the core elements being the establishment of norms, control measures, and judicial supervision. Only by doing so, can BEAP effectively exercise its control function in administrative law and fulfill its function in constructing human environmental activities within environmental law.