Research On The Illegitimacy Of Economic Crimes

Economic crimes mean those criminal offences committed in the areas of economy and closely associated with actions of market economy. The changeability and complexity of economic behavior cause the complicatedness of structure and multiplicity of patterns of economic crimes, therefore the questions that which economic transgression shall be determined as criminal offences and what is the standard for determining economic crimes in criminal justice are the key issues in the academic research of economic crimes. The legislation mode of economic crimes in China's current Criminal Code adopts the unified mode, which is called Crimes of Undermining the Socialist Market Economic Order and concentrated in Chapter Three of Criminal Code. This legislation mode is helpful for the direct revocation in criminal justice, but it is problematic in its abstractness of crime description and exceeding width of penalty configuration, which causes the difficulties in materialization of principle of statutory crime and penalty. Through the analysis of illegitimacy theory in the crime determination doctrine of civil law system, this article propose the introduction of the concept of material illegitimacy on the basis of current constitution elements of crimes in China and the active application of it in the crime determination, especially the determination of economic crimes. It argues that economic crimes must have violated the basic laws of civil law, economic law and administrative law, since it violates the criminal law. So economic laws have the feature of double violation of law on its illegitimacy, which is the essential characteristic that differentiated them from other crimes. The article holds to recognize this characteristic of economic crimes is of great significance in legislation and judicial practice of economic crimes. To guide the legislation on this principle, it can ensure the intervention of criminal law over economic activities restricted in proper scope, and facilitate the orderly development and robust of economy. As a conclusion, it proposes the principles and mode of criminalization of economic offences. In criminal justice, to adopt this standard in the determination of economic crimes can restrict the initialization of the state's power of punishment and safeguard the people's lawful economic interests in maximum limit. At last, it expands on the approaches of determining illegitimacy of economic crimes.