论环境侵权诉讼因果关系证明中的“初步证据”

环境侵权诉讼中举证责任倒置规则有利于对原告的救济，但该规则存在重大缺失，其逻辑结构不完整致使推定结论缺乏可靠性和准确性。对此，最高人民法院出台了指导性司法意见，要求原告在被告反向证明因果关系不存在前先对因果关系存在的可能性提供初步证据。这不仅进一步平衡了原被告之间的举证负担，更使举证责任倒置规则的适用具备了较为充分的科学依据。在环境侵权诉讼实务中，原告对初步证据的证明标准只要达到低度盖然性标准即可，其证明手段包括官方文件认定、鉴定结论、学术论著及疫学统计方法等，司法解释有必要对初步证据的证明标准和证明手段等具体问题进一步予以细化。

A Brief Discussion on Preliminary Evidence in the Causal Relationship Testimony of Environmental Tort Action

The rule of reversion of burden of proof in environmental tort action is to the benefit of the accuser’s relief.However，the presumed conclusion lacks reliability and accuracy due to the incomplete logical structure of the rule.The guiding judicial opinion issued by the Supreme People’s Court requires that the accuser provide preliminary evidence to testify the possibility of causal relationship before the defendant reversely testifies the non-existence of causal relationship.This makes a balance of burden of proof between the accuser and the defendant，providing sufficient scientific basis for the application of the rule of reversion of burden of proof.In the practice of environmental tort action，the accuser’s preliminary evidence is only required to reach low probability standard，including official document，expert conclusion，academic works，and epidemiological statistical approach.However，the judicial interpretation should give detailed explanation to the means and standard of testimony of preliminary evidence.