Study Dangerous Driving

The Amendment VIII to Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of Chinacriminalizes competitive chasing driving and drunk driving, and thus sets “crime ondangerous driving” as a new crime provided in the Criminal Law of the People’sRepublic of China. The legislation of “crime on dangerous driving” is method ofhow criminal law deals with nowadays risk society. It reflects that criminal law hasturned from consequence without value to conduct without value in a proper extent.Criminal law can achieve its purpose of advance protection for rechtsgut through theusage of truncate constitutive elements of crime and potential damage offense.Notwithstanding the judicial interpretation names this crime as “crime on dangerousdriving”, the crime name is defective because it is not coordinated with the counts.The Amendment VIII has defined motor vehicles as the instrument of crime androads as the place of crime clearly. Hence the finding of these two constitutiveelements of crime shall refer to relevant laws and regulations.Pursuit competitive driving is necessary joint crime. Vicious circumstances asits quantificational constitutive element of crime shall be limited to behaviors whichseriously violate public traffic regulations. The innate character of drunk drivingcriminalization is the criminalization of administrative violation and the amendmentto the Road Traffic Safety Law proves this viewpoint. Drunk driving behaviorscannot be decriminalized directly according to the proviso in the Article13ofCriminal Law of PRC. But the proviso in Article13of Criminal Law of PRC canguide the interpretation of constitutive elements of crimes.The subjective aspect of “crime on dangerous driving” is intentional andincludes both direct intent and indirect intent. Compared to “crime of causing trafficcasualties” which is a negligent crime and felony,“crime on dangerous driving” is anintentional crime but misdemeanor. This phenomenon is called “reversal of guilty mind” and will lead to unfair consequences in fact.Inchoate behaviors of dangerous driving do not constitute “crime on dangerousdriving” but joint behaviors of dangerous driving might constitute such crime. Interms of pursuit competitive driving, the participants are necessary joint principaloffenders. But the criminal liability of participants shall be subject to the theory ofpartial joint crimes and not limited to participant’s deficiency of capacity of criminalliability. In terms of drunk driving, behaviors of abetting and helping mightconstitute joint crime of “crime on dangerous driving” as long as the objectiveconstitutive elements and the subjective constitutive elements are accorded.The relationship of “crime of causing traffic casualties” and “crime ondangerous driving” is supplementary overlapping of legal provisions and they arecomplementary to each other. Behaviors causing actual damage which does notreach the conviction criteria of “crime of causing traffic casualties” might constitute“crime on dangerous driving”.On the distinction of “crime on dangerous driving” and “crime of intentionallyendangering public security by other dangerous means”, dangerous drivingbehaviors with the intention of endangering public security and correspondingseverity compared to behaviors of setting on fire, causing explosion and so on mightconstitute “crime of intentionally endangering public security by other dangerousmeans”.The maximum legally-prescribed punishment of “crime on dangerous driving”is detention and thus the limitation of prosecution stipulated in Article87ofCriminal Law of PRC cannot apply this crime. Besides, the provision of “crime ondangerous driving” in Criminal Law of PRC is remained to be further improved.