On Strict Liability Crime Of Anglo-American Criminal Law And Its Influences On Crime Of Major Liability Accident Of The People's Republic Of China

The doctrine of liability fixation of criminal liability develops from the single objective culpability, to subjective culpability of the Middle Ages and to the doctrine of objective and subjective unity which takes the absolute position in the field of criminal law, showing the human subjective understanding of themselves experiences a leap in terms of the extent. However, the rapid economic development brings the potential risk increasingly. In the crime of some special fields, law adopts the non-formal means of proof, and implements the burden of proof in reverse procedurally; the defendant personally takes the responsibility of impeccant act. The strict liability crime is a manifestation of the exceptional provisions. Therefore, in the beginning of its formation, it is considered as a challenge to "no crime means irresponsible", the truth of unity of subjective and objective, even in its birthplace, Anglo-American countries, critics continue to emerge. However, strict liability is a system with unique charm, for it has developed in soil of the Anglo-American criminal law for hundreds of years and tends to applied more widely even though it is controversial. Nevertheless, in this thesis, the author places the strict liability, as exotica from Anglo-American criminal law, back to its birthplace, restore the essential attribute and re-examine its legitimate value. From the maximum interests of the whole society, this thesis aims to draw a relatively reasonable line for the crime of strict liability as well as to spur to come forward with valuable contributions to the criminal law of the People's Republic of China. Exactly as Professor Su Li said, "to test the right and the wrong should not be our theory nor the mainstream theory but a social practice. I insist the view which I have expressed elsewhere that the more extensive and long-accepted the practice is, the more justified it may be. Thus, it is important to check whether this practice is justified or not."In the first part, the author traces historical source of the crime of strict liability in the Anglo-American criminal law from the macroscopic view, grasps the development of strict liability criminal as a whole, explores its generating social, economic, and religious elements; on a microscopic level, based on the theory of constitution of crime of the Anglo-American criminal law, the birthplace of strict liability crime, the author outlines the delicate relationship between strict liability and culpability elements, lays the foundation of later parts; finally, it adopts the deductive approach to review briefly and comment a few typical cases of strict liability crime in the Anglo-American criminal law, whose inherent concepts are the important basis for demonstrating the legitimacy value in the strict liability crime later.The second part exemplifies the different definition of strict liability crime in domestic and foreign the academic circle. From the crime of strict liability defined by British and American scholars, British criminal law gradually separated strict liability from absolute liability, while American criminal law, in judicial practice, summed up a series of rules excluding the application of strict liability, the strict liability crime can be replaced with the absolute liability under general circumstances. Even though domestic academic discusses strict liability fervently, yet most of the definitions, based on the information and research the author has collected, are involved the characteristics of no-fault liability, nevertheless, being insufficient in exploration on the procedure of the inversion of burden of proof, the author believes the meaning of strict liability system will be more complete if defined from the substance and the procedure.Part three mainly expounds and proves the legitimate value existing in the criminal strict liability, namely, the retaining of criminal structure of Anglo-American criminal law, the support of the basic principles of criminal law, the game between utilitarianism of criminal law and law justice, discussing from the policy environment, criminal law structure and theoretical support of strict liability crime, to realize the birth of strict liability crime possesses necessity but not only an accident through analyzing rationally, disclosed the veil of strict liability crime.The fourth part discusses various reasons that whether it is suitable to introduce strict liability crimes to China or not. After comparing the typical domestic academia points on the suitability of the introduction of strict liability system, the author raises her own view:the reasons why strict liability crime in our criminal law field is highly controversial are two main keys:one of the keys will be the ambiguity of its defined connotation, the other is to explore the system of strict liability should not be limited to certain consideration. It is not so much a system for transplantation as a balance of value. It is the nation applies legal means to transit gradually from the individual standard to the social standard.In part five, the author takes the crime of major liability accident as example to conceive how to construct the localization of strict liability system in Chinese Criminal Law. The structural imperfection of strict liability crime induces it can be only treated as an exception to its provisions in some specific areas of crime. Crime of major liability accident, as a typical type of crimes against public security, brings misgivings and worry because of its status quo of high crime. Consequently, the author tries to broach strict liability system to crime of major liability accident, including some contents appropriately added to the content of substantive criminal law such as strict liability system, theory of constitution of crime and the crime of major liability accident, etc. as well as supporting modifications to the relevant action law of the Law of Criminal Procedure. Finally, the author proposes some restrictions so as to prevent abusing the system of strict liability.