Research On The Criminal Law Becoming Private Law

For a long time, the criminal law belongs to public law in mainstream opinion. However,the complementariness of the criminal law determines that criminal law is only guaranteeinglaw. With the development of theories and practices, criminal law has more ingredients ofprivate law. The typical sign of “criminal law becoming private law” is criminal reconciliation.As a new thing, criminal reconciliation has flexibility, autonomy, substantive, and longevity inresolving criminal conflicts, which is entirely different from traditional ways of resolvingdispute. What’s more, criminal reconciliation, which is fair, effective to resolving criminalconflicts, can represent victim’s interest better, improve litigation efficiency and resolve socialcontradictions. But it has some negative impact. Victim’s agreement, as one reflection of“criminal law becoming private law”, only refers to the guilty without victim’s commitment.The theory about victim’s agreement has very important influence on criminal law, especiallythe theory about crime. Moreover, the change of implementation of criminal responsibility isalso a reflection of “criminal law becoming private law”. With development of rule of law,non-penalization, which in line with humanism an international trend, is replacing traditionaldoctrine of severe penalty and occupies the mainstream. There are a lot of reasons for“criminal law becoming private law”, in which building harmonious society, maintainingsocial stability and implementing lenient and severe criminal policy are most importantreasons. As a trend,“criminal law becoming private law” is valuable. But it not onlyinevitably impacts the principle that guilty must be punished, but also conflicts with intent ofpenalty, the principle of legality, the principle of suiting punishment to crime and the principlein the equal application of law to anyone committing a crime. Hence, it is necessary tostipulate “criminal law becoming private law” in constitutional law to better the function androle of criminal law.