On The Legitimacy Of Causality Of Epidemilolgy Introduced Into Criminal Law

It has been a long history of more than 200 years since the theory of the causality about criminal law originated in the early 19th century. In the early period this theory was studied under the conduct of behaviourism. In 1873 after appearing conditioning theory, the theory of the causality about criminal law entered the stage of teleology, in which the causality is considered as an independent elements in criminal law and its purpose is to provide objective basis for the criminal responsibility. Since then, a variety of theories of the causality about criminal law from schools have appeared endlessly and continued to deepen and develop.The mid-20th century, with the rapid development of industrial economy, the public hazards cases about the environment, food, medicine frequently occurred.Because the causal relationships are very complex, for the traditional criminal causality theory it's difficult to determine the issue of causal relationship in crimes.In this background, in 1969 the Japanese scholar first proposed the causality of epidemiology to judge the causal relationship in crimes, which was widely accepted by the criminal law theorists and pragmatist and also was fully affirmed by Germany and Japan in the legislative and judicial practice. The so-called causality of epidemiology is a method and theory based on the high probabilities and the principles of epidemiology between the links of some factors (causes) and a disease (the result) to determine the causal relationship.This method was introduced into the criminal law to judge the causal relationship and has become a new theory.In the early 90's of last century, the causality of epidemiology has been introduced to our country. After entering the new century, the criminal law theorists and pragmatist in China have paid more attention to it and carried out more study and exploration. But does it have the validity when introducing the theory of causality of epidemiology into criminal law to judge a causal relationship in crimes, and does it have the actual possibility and necessity to introduce this theory into our country?The theory of the causality about criminal law is an open system and will be perfect with the development and progress of natural sciences and society. The traditional theory of the causality about criminal law is based on Newton's mechanics while the theory of causality of epidemiology is on the basis of modern statistical science. The causality of epidemiology is an objective, not a subjective presumption. So the theory of causality of epidemiology has a scientific basis and it is the development and improvement of the traditional theory of the causality about criminal law. This theory in criminal law system is indispensable and irreplaceable. It is a theory, which is compatible with the morphological epistemology based on the conditioning theory in the West and the natural epistemology based on the inevitability theory in the socialist legal system, and in which it limit the scope of reason for the conditioning theory while expands the scope of the reason for the inevitability theory, and which can apply to the hidden gap committment and considers the bad results as the judgements of causality from a whole perspectiue.The philosophical foundation, the theoretical system and the rule of law, and the principles of criminal law and the existing criminal law in the Chinese theory of the causality about criminal law have no conflicts whith the theory of causality of epidemiology. So it's possible to introduce this theory into our country. The confusion, between the condition of severe public hazard crime in our country and responds from the traditional theory of the causality about criminal law, indicates that the necessity of introduction of the theory of causality of epidemiology.Therefore, the introduction of the theory of causality of epidemiology into China has theoretical legitimacy, real possibility and necessity.