中文摘要：

环境公益诉讼在世界范围内都一直是理论与实践的焦点，在很大程度上，美国、中国等国的环境公益诉讼的症结都在于被告，而非惯常所认为的原告及其起诉资格。中国环境公益诉讼的核心更在于“谁”应当是被告，因为通常是由于被告存在侵害行为，才使得原告发动诉讼，而被告的举证能力和责任能力则决定了案件的走向和最终结果。通过检视新《环境保护法》等法律实施一年来的案件，不难发现，环境公益诉讼的被告存在若干局限，其直接表现在地域、类型、身份构成和其他当事人的情况等方面，间接表现在权利主张和事实主张、举证责任分配、责任承担方式和结案情况等方面。对此，应通过解释论和立法论的双重路径予以克服，前者以诉讼当事人为中心，包括拓展原告的范围、明确支持起诉人的地位和审视检察院试点等内容；后者以法院为中心，包括妥善分配举证责任、科学判断因果关系和创新责任承担方式等内容。

英文摘要：

Public interest litigation has always been the focus of theoretical research and practice all around the world. To a large extent, the crux of the problem with public interest litigation in the US and China is always the defendant, rather than the plaintiff and its standing. The key issue in environmental public interest litigation in China is who should be the defendant, because it is usually the defendant＇ s behavior that causes the lawsuit, and it is the defendant＇ s capacity for producing evidence and bearing liability that determines the direction and the final result of the trial of a case. Through the examination of the relevant cases dealt with by Chinese courts since the enforcement of the Environment Protection Law and other new laws, it is easy to find out the limitations of the defendant in public interest litigation, which are directly embodied in such aspects of a case as region, type, composition of identity and other parties in- volved, and indirectly embodied in such aspects of a case as the claims for right or fact, distribution of the burden of proof, method of bearing liability and conclusion of cases. To overcome these limitations, it is necessary to integrate the proach. The former takes parties to litigation as interpretative approach with the legislative its center and expanding the scope of plain aptiff, defining the status of the prosecution-supporting party and examining the pilot programs of procuratorates as its main content, whereas the latter takes proper allocation of burden of proof, scientific determination of the causation, and innovation of liability-bearing methods as its main content.