Study On Inter-article Relationship Of Criminal Law

In the written law system, the criminal law is embodied in specific articles. Such articles are expressions of the lawmakers'purposes by applying the lawmaking techniques and special words in accordance with statutory legislation processes. In the modern society, to cope with the increasingly complex social relationship, the articles of the criminal law increase in quantity and their makeup is becoming increasingly complicated. Just as the lawmakers must pay attention to the inter-article relationship when making the articles of the criminal law, so do the judges when applying them. But what exact relationships between the various articles are in the criminal law, how such relationships are formed, and how can the appropriate articles be selected from the nexus of articles have now already been a question that the criminal judicature, science of the criminal law and the criminal law makers have to answer. This dissertation, titled Study on Inter-article Relationship of Criminal Law, thoroughly examines the articles of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China from the perspective of the inter-article relationships by applying the basic theories of linguistics, logic, lawmaking and criminal law. This dissertation hopes to provide fresh research methods for the criminal law making, theoretic studies and criminal justice and to preliminarily build up the inter-article relationship nexus for the criminal law. This dissertation has twelve chapters in three parts, with a total volume of one hundred and forty thousand Chinese characters.Part One consists of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, analyzing the concept of inter-article relationships of the criminal law, their features and theory. Chapter 1 describes the inter-article relationships of the criminal law, including the concept, the features, the research method, categorization of the inter-article relationships and the research value. This dissertation firstly defines the concept of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law as the factual interaction and status of mutual influence between the articles and their paragraphs due to reasons of phrasal expressions, logic and lawmaking techniques. Exploration of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law depends on utilization of linguistics, logic, legislative science and criminal jurisprudence. The dissertation then summarizes the features of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law as that 1) the inter-article relationships of the criminal law is a lawmaking phenomenon resulting from the complexity of social relationship adjustment by the criminal law; 2) the inter-article relationships of the criminal law is an objective existence resulting from lawmaking; 3) the inter-article relationships of the criminal law is static and, once the law is created, will arise naturally and will not be affected by particular crimes; and 4 ) the inter-article relationships exists throughout the whole criminal law. Drawing upon the general research method in criminal jurisprudence, this dissertation believes that the research of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law shall follow the said general method and use the behavior-based articles as the subject of research, instead of the particular criminal behavior, criminal pattern and quantity of crime. This dissertation finds that the research method for the inter-article relationships of the criminal law may be an application of the criminal law methodology as well as rational thinking. Specifically, research of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law should fully utilize such research methods as syntactic, semantic and contextual analysis in linguistics; fully utilize the basic logic rules and concept connotation and extension as used in logics; fully utilize the lawmaking techniques and rationale; and fully utilize the theory of designing general provisions and specific provisions, selective application of overlapping provisions, and theory for criminal law interpretation in criminal jurisprudence. This dissertation then categorizes the inter-article relationships of the criminal law along the disciplines of linguistics, logic, legislative science and criminal jurisprudence. At the end of Chapter 1, this dissertation analyzes the theoretical values, the legislative values and judicial values of research of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law, thus underlying the research value of the whole dissertation.Chapter 2 deals with the theoretical foundation of the inter-article relationships of the criminal law in four sections. Firstly, this dissertation studies the inter-article relationships from the perspective of linguistics and finds linguistics is part of the theoretical foundation after examining the related semantics, contextual and stylistics; Secondly, this dissertation studies the inter-article relationships from the perspective of logic and finds the basic rule and scope of the formal logic have important impact upon the inter-article relationships; Thirdly, this dissertation studies the inter-article relationships from the perspective of legislative science and highlights the impact of the legislative science; and fourthly, this dissertation studies the inter-article relationships from the perspective of criminal jurisprudence by applying the theory for setting apart the general provisions and specific provisions in the criminal law, theory of constitution of crime, theory of selectively applying overlapping articles and theory of criminal law interpretation.Part Two, namely Chapter 3, deals with the inter-article relationships of the general provisions of the criminal law. Chapter 3 elaborates the inter-article relationships of the general provisions from the perspectives of the internal relationship between the articles of the general provisions and the relationship between the articles of the general provisions and those of the specific provisions by applying the theories of linguistics, logic, lawmaking and the principle for setting apart the general provisions and specific provisions. As to the internal relationship between articles of the general provisions, this dissertation analyzes the relationship between articles of the general provisions from the seven aspects, namely, the intrinsic relationship between the articles for territorial jurisdiction in the criminal law, definition of crime, complicity, subjects of crime, criminal responsibilities, types of penalties, and articles concerning state functionaries, and points out some problems existing in the lawmaking of the general provisions. As to the relationship between the general provisions and specific provisions, this dissertation analyzes the articles in the general provisions for intent and negligence, the specific crimes, failed attempts, complicity, crime committed by institutional units, joinder of punishments, and the relationship between the articles concerning state functionaries in the general provisions and those in the specific provisions, and elaborates the exceptions and supplements to the general provisions made by the specific provisions.Part Three deals with the inter-article relationships of the criminal law in the specific provisions, which consists of Chapter 4 to 12 as the main part for elaborating the inter-article relationships of the criminal law. In this part, this dissertation follows the layout of the specific provisions and applies the theories of criminal law interpretation and selective application of overlapping provisions in analyzing the internal relationships between crimes of jeopardizing state security, crimes of jeopardizing public security, crimes of jeopardizing the socialist market economy order, crimes infringing on the person-rights and democratic rights of citizens, property-related crimes, crimes of interfering the social management order, crimes of jeopardizing national defense interests, crimes of bribery, and crimes of dereliction of duty, and their relationship to other articles in the specific provisions. On the basis of thorough and holistic analysis and research, this dissertation summarizes the internal relationships within the multiple articles in the specific provisions and their mutual relationships, clarifies the selective application of the articles and points out the problems existing in the criminal law making.