The Criminal Law of People's Republic of China - What are the guiding principles and characteristics
Uploaded by siuking on Apr 29, 2002
Criminal Law is enacted in accordance with the principle of combining punishment with leniency. The Law governs Tasks, Basic Principles, and Scope of Application of the Criminal Law, Crimes, Punishments, The Concrete Application Of Punishments, Crimes of Endangering National Security, Crimes of Endangering Public Security, Crimes of Undermining the Order of Socialist Market Economy, Crimes of Infringing Upon the Rights of the Person and the Democratic Rights of Citizens, Crime of Encroaching on Property, Crimes of Disrupting the Order of Social Administration, Crimes of Endangering the Interests of National Defense, Graft and Bribery, Crimes of Dereliction of Duty, Crimes of Violation of Duty by Military Personnel Supplementary Articles. Criminal Law was Adopted by the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on July 1, 1979 and amended by the Fifth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress on March 14, 1997. Criminal Law, in 452 articles, comes into effect on October 1, 1997.
In the PRC ideology has infected its understanding of the cause of crime. Instead of being connected to human nature or malfeasance as in the West, the prevailing view has been that crime is a result of a class society. The thesis is that in a truly socialist and classless society the causes of crime and immorality would be rooted out and thus there would be no need (or at least only a minimal need) for an elaborate apparatus of social order and management of criminal activity.
Of course, since 1949 when the PRC established, it has become increasingly obvious, even to the officials of the PRC that crime has continued and that many crimes have no plausible or traceable class-based explanation. So the socialist theory of crime eradication has been quietly dropped. What this means ultimately is that Chinese moral culture will have a continuing need to control crime and minimize its occurrence and effect in the society. PRC was also affected by a series of political events and class struggle. Such political events made the situation became worse and because of the chaos of political atmosphere, the rule of law is totally impossible in China for the period 1950-1980, until the end of Cultural Revolution.
In the PRC, especially in its anti-crime campaigns of the 1980s persons who engaged in criminal or illegal activity were considered "enemies of the people". In fact, not all anti-social behavior is handled by the courts. There are matters handed by the...