Research On The Number Of Act In Competing Theory Of Criminal Law

This paper is to discuss the number of act in competing theory. Simply, this isabout a move or a series of moves, made by a person, is singular act or plural act,and the standard of distinction between them.The reason why I research this problem is I feel confused about the personalmove is singular act or plural act under the competing theory of criminal law, buttoday’s criminal law theory (theory on the number of crime) doesn’t answereffectively. It also caused the confusion about judging in judicial practice. In thecompeting theory, we often talk about the imaginative competition and the virtualcompetition. The criminal law theories in our country define that the imaginativecompetition is singular act offended several charges, the virtual competition is pluralact made up several independent crimes. The problem we have to discuss during ourstudy is the meaning of the singular act and the plural act, and how to distinguishthem. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to clarify the connotation ofsingular act and plural act, and how to distinguish specifically.During my research, I found there was big difference between Germancompeting theories and Japanese crime theories. German competing theoriesgenerally take the number of act as the starting point and one of the premise elementsof the competing theory, and discuss this problem in theory particularly, so theGermany formed different system upon the competing theory. Japanese crimetheories, including our country, rarely discuss the number of act except in theimaginative competition talk about “one act”, is another matter. Therefore, this papertries to comment the difference between two systems and the reason besides themeaning of the singular act and the plural act.Based on the above reason, I take the singular act and the plural act as core inthis paper. Firstly I expound the status of development of this problem, and concludethere is difference among different countries and area, then analysis the relationship between theory on the number of crime and the theory on competition, and thesignificance of the number of act. In this part, I think although there is differencebetween two systems, the system of competition do not only need to discuss thenumber of crime, but as the premise element. At the same time, I discuss the basicconnotation of the singular act and the plural act, my opinion is that the singular act isthe exclusive concept of the competing theory, the concept of act is identical, there isonly one act in criminal law. The number of act is the starting point and one of thepremise elements of the competing theory, the number of act is not equal to thenumber of crime.Theory upon distinction of the number of act includes one element theory,several elements theory and two elements theory, I agree with two elements theory,which distinguish the number of act from the natural view and the criminal law.According to two elements theory, I swear the singular act has three types, the naturalmeaning singular act, constitutive singular act, natural singular act and legal singularact.There is plenty of importance in this problem. First of all, we have chance toknow the German competing theories, and realise the number of act as the basicelement of the system. Secondly, compare with two different systems, trying to findthe reason on difference, then point out the competing theories are more superior.Finally, it can help us to understand the number of act correctly and providetheoretical guidance to judge the number of act.The practical significance is that it can provide a effective standard to distinguishthe number of act. Its system is simple and logical, it can get the same judgment, soit will maintain the judicial fairly. Briefly, it provides a method to distinguish thesingular act and the plural act for judicial practice.