On The Application Of Article 306 Of Criminal Law And Legislative Prospects

Legislation and perfection of crimes of impairing evidences is an important research topic in science of criminal laws. On March 14,1997,the criminal law of the people's Republic of China was promulgated, to which Articles 306 and 307 were added so as to contain crimes of impairing evidences, especially the impairment by defenders and agents ad litem. However, with the application of Article 306 in judicial practice, a lot of problems have arisen, for example, some defense attorneys have been wrongly put into jail, as a result of which, the number of criminal defenses has sharply decreased. The legal professions and jurisprudential circle summon to abolish Article 306 of the criminal Law. And some scholars even the amalgamation of Articles 306 and 307,but fail to present concrete contents of amalgamation and their theoretical grounds. Based on those above, in this article, the author is going to expound the application of Article 306 and legislative malpractices, elaborate the feasibilities and necessities of the abolition of Article 306 and integration of Articles 306 and 307, and raise some propositions to consummate legislation in dealing with crimes of impairing evidences. Consequently, many puzzles in judicial practice will be settled. This is what the research subject is going to demonstrate: theoretical value and practical significance.This article is composed of five parts, which first expounds the legislative process of Article 306 and its present execution situation in judicial practice. Through careful analyses of the constitutive characteristics of crimes of forging and destroying evidences, and crimes of impairing testifying by defenders and agents ad litem added in Article 306 and some easily confusing problems when applying this article injudicial practice, the author raises the question of design reasonableness of Article 306, proposes the abolition of this article, and recommends the integration of Article 306 and Article 307. In the last part, the author points out that we will be confronted with inadequacy in legislation to deal with crimes of impairing evidences, posing some rationalization proposals to consummate legislation so as to enhance the hitting power in dealing with crimes of impairing evidences, to achieve justice and greater efficiency, and to promote the process of democracy and constitutionality in our country.