On The Structure Of Unit Crime

Unit (corporation) offence is a result of commercial economy developing to acertain historical stage. Since the Law of Customs established for the first time the item of unit offence in 1988, China has put an end to the prolonged debate in the theoretical circle of criminal law whether a unit could be a criminal subject and bear a proper penal responsibility. In the theory and practice of criminal laws, however, unit offence still has many difficult problems to be resolved and the debate will continue in all kinds of forms and on different contents. This paper attempts to give a relatively overall statement about unit offence from the view of criminal law theory and practice. It also takes a study to a certainty about the theory of unit offence components and puts forward a different opinion on some commonly cared and difficult problems in the theory of unit offence.Unit crime involves a special subject in the criminal law of China. With the practice of legislation and judicature, the theory on composing of unit crime has been increasklgly developed. But the limitation of the subject in a unit crime, the forms of offences and their cognizance are still among the focus points and difficulties in the field of criminal law.This paper argues that the limitation of subject in unit crime can not be divorced from the legislation currently in effect. The subject of a unit crime can be a government organization, a Party committee at a basic level, or a private enterprise. The Unit crime involves a sole subject, not a double one. Unit crimes are always performed in the form of the whole offence of a whole will, not only out of intentions but also defects. And the defects in a unit crime must be distinguished from the neglect of duty of the persons in charge. The objective behavior in a unit crime is of complexity, for it may be performed in two styles: action or omission.