On Criminal Law Judicial Interpretation

The process of criminal law's application is just the process of the interpretation of criminal law. The necessity and importance for researching on the interpretation of criminal law is self-evident. Judicial interpretations by supreme court as primary means of application of criminal law, to relieve the contradiction between stabilization of criminal law and adaptation of criminal law, and have been an important effect on the criminal law application and the maintenance of criminal law authority. At present, there are many flaws in the criminal law judicial interpretation, and they are affecting the judicial interpretation's authoritative. This also makes the judicial practice puzzled at the same time it destructs the criminal law's system. This article has first affirmed that it's rational for the criminal law judicial interpretation to exist, and then analyzes the flaws which exist in our country's criminal law judicial interpretation according to the questions that found in the practice ,then produces some reasonable suggestions to the system's consummation.The first part is the analysis about the existence of the judicial interpretation .The author believed that the principle of statutory crime and penalty has provided the foundation for the criminal law judicial interpretation, which represents in two aspects: on the one hand, the principle of statutory crime and penalty needs the criminal law judicial interpretation to compromise the individual human rights; on the other hand, the principle of statutory crime and penalty has also delimited the scope and the limit for the criminal law judicial interpretation. And then, the law's insufficient is the judicial interpretation's precondition. Because the legislation is not multi-purpose, and the legislator's ability is limited, so we need to explain the law.In the second part, the author has described our country's criminal law judicial interpretation's present situation, and analyzed the flaws in the present criminal law judicial interpretation. First, there are flaws in the interpretation subject system. One is the massive administration's actual participation, the other is the subordinate judicial authority's actual participation. At the same time, it's unreasonable for the Supreme People's Procuratorate to be the judicial interpretation's subject. The subject of the judicial interpretation of criminal law should be courts, while only confined to the superior and senior court. The procuratorial prosecution exercises the authority of prosecution, which is not equal to the judicial right, so prosecution organ is not the subject of the judicial interpretation authority of criminal law. Meanwhile the prosecution organ's trying of exercising the judicial interpretation authority will go against justice of judicature and unification of law system. According to our pragmatic situations and practices of law in China, our country should construct a one-unity & two-level system of judicial interpretation of criminal law. Next, content has flaw. There are many abstract and principle interpretations, and this has departed from the goal of the interpretation; Some judicial interpretations are in fact innovation of the criminal law, and some are the distortion or revision to the criminal law. Third, the judicial interpretation's form is chaotic. Fourth, the judicial interpretation's method has flaw.The third part is to give some concrete suggestions to our country's criminal law judicial interpretation. Here the author affirm that our judicial interpretation has already been more standard, but there still exist flaws which puzzle the judicial interpretation's better representation. To solve the adverse effect that these flaws brought, we should carry on the consummation to our country's criminal law judicial interpretation. First, we must establish a new criminal law judicial interpretation subject system, it's the one-unity & two-level system of judicial interpretation of criminal law. In this criminal judicature interpretation system we take the Supreme People's Court and the Higher People's Court as the criminal law judicial interpretation's subject. Second, we must definitude the limitation of the criminal law judicial interpretation. Certain degree creativity of judicial interpretation is necessary, but it cannot be boundless, it must have a certain restriction. The author think we may limit the criminal law judicial interpretation from two aspects: the content and the whole order of the law. Finally, we must establish a surveillance mechanism for the judicial interpretation. Here the author suggest that we can take the Supreme People's Procuratorate as the criminal law judicial interpretation's surveillance institution.There are many discussions about different approaches to interpretation of criminal law. There are altogether about 20 approaches to interpretation of criminal law, which might not be exactly right but are enlightening for the correct interpretation and application of criminal law. Based on these observations, this article discusses a series of problems existed in interpretation system and proposes the author's own point on construction of criminal interpretation system and hopes that it can make some help on the analyzation of the whole interpretation system.