Drunken Driving Accident Case Judicial Determination

In recent years, since typical cases of car accidents caused by drunk drivers like the SunWeiming Case in Sichuan, the LiJingquan Case in Guangdong, the ZhangMingbao Case in Jiangsu, the society's appeal to strictly punishing those drunk drivers has been increasingly aroused. Under this background, Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China has included the item Drunk Driving in as a crime. However, there are still controversies on how to identify the accidents caused by drunk driving. This paper mainly focuses on how to analyze the car accidents caused by drunk driving from the angle of judicial identification. In addition to the introduction, this paper is divided into five parts.Part I:Overview of drunk driving criminal cases, including identifying conception of "intoxication","driving" and "crime" and the legislation history of China on drunk driving.Part II:Theoretical basis for drink drivers taking criminal responsibilities, through elaborating the argument of possessing subjective intention, the argument of strict liability and the free act of the causes; Analyzing the characteristics of the drink drivers'capacity of criminal responsibility; Emphasizing on the theory of the free act of the causes to discuss taking criminal responsibility of drink driving.Part III is dedicated to presenting the fundamental qualitative criteria for Drunk Driving Accidents. On the one hand, the main reasons for adhering to objective behavior analysis over Drunk Driving Accidents are elaborated, including the unpredictability of the subjective awareness of the drunken drivers and consideration of practical necessities. On the other hand, emphasis is played on the criterion of combining the objective behaviors and subjective elements in the recognition of Drunk Driving Accidents.Part IV, the focus of this paper, presents the heated debate over the qualitative criteria for Drunk Driving Accidents and the solution thereof, mainly from the subjective aspect and objective behavioral aspect. It is claimed that Drunk Driving Accidents should be classified as "First offense" and "Second offence", taking in consideration of the specific situation of a specific case.Part V, the conclusion of this paper, attempts to put forward some legislative proposals of the author in the field of dangerous driving crime, mainly including the extension and specification of the crime of dangerous driving, the reasonable combination of principal penalty and accessory penalties.