The Establishment Of The Notion Of The Criminal Law In Contemporary China

The notion of the criminal law in China refers to the fundamental concepts or thoughts about Chinese criminal law, which are the ideological bases and theoretical guidelines to optimize our country’s criminal legislation and criminal law practice. Accordingly, great importance should be attached to research in this aspect and remarkable achievements are supposed to be witnessed so as to live up to people’s expectations. However, it is by no means the truth. It can even be considered that researches concerned are still in the budding phase where there are endless arguments and differences and no unanimous conclusion can be drawn."National Culture" is vague and "Contemporary China" obscured. These unreasonable controversies are destined to be weeded out by history and reality. Therefore, it remains a glorious and arduous academic mission for all criminal jurists to establish the notion of criminal law in law-governed China.Starting from the base point of the problem, Chapter One discusses relevant fundamental concepts and the origin of the topic. In the exposition of basic concepts, the author not only analyzes and classifies the notions of criminal law in China, but also probes into the its main features and important value. Then, the author introduces the status quo of researches into the notion of criminal law in China, and points out five existence modalities of the notion. After criticizing the five modalities, the thesis brings in the mission of establishing the notion of criminal law in contemporary China, which constitutes the origin of the topic.Chapter Two talks about the notions from both the West and ancient China. The author analyzes western notions of three different historic stages, indicating and reflecting on the five obvious characteristics of the movement of introducing western notions of criminal law. For the latter, the thesis reviews the main contents of notions of criminal law in ancient China, and summed up to eight concrete concepts. On the basis of this, the author explores the significance of notions of criminal law in ancient China for the purpose of inheritance and reference in the establishment of contemporary Chinese notions of criminal law.The contents followed are detailed expositions of the establishment of notions of criminal law in contemporary China, which composes the third chapter—the core part of the thesis. The theoretical character of the notions and major factors involved in theory establishment are covered. Then the author lays stress on the central topic of establishing contemporary Chinese notions of criminal law, successively ushering in and explaining three notions:the notion of criminal law with Chinese national and cultural characteristics, the notion of criminal law with limitations and the notion of criminal law with independent value. Finally, the thesis makes a simple analysis on the possible effects produced by the above-mentioned notions.