A Study On Issues Concerning The Crime Of Dangerous Driving

In order to effectively relieve the increasingly serious safety problems oftransportation in China, dangerous driving began to be criminalized in theAmendment to Criminal Law (VIII). A new paragraph has been added to Article133in Criminal Law of People’s Republic of China, that is, the first paragraph in Article133. It is regulated that "if a person who is competitive chasing driving in severecircumstances or drunk driving will be subject to detention or a fine". That is to saythat the criminalization of dangerous driving behavior effectively protects thepersonal and property safety of the public and realizes the prior intervention ofCriminal Law in dangerous driving behavior. Since it was enforced, the effectivenessof dangerous driving criminalization has been seen from the decreasing number ofcaseload.But it will be difficult for the Amendment to Criminal Law (VIII) to be enforcedindeed into juridical practice. For example, the criminalization of drunk drivingdepends on whether it is consistent with severe circumstances of dangerous driving;or if their circumstances are not severe, the decriminalization could be based onproviso in Article13of Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China; how toidentify the competitive driving as a severe case; the similarities and differencesbetween dangerous driving and other similar charges like endangering public securityby dangerous means or traffic accident crime. On Dec.18,2013, the Supreme People’sCourt, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointlypromulgated Opinions on Issues Concerning the Laws Applied to Handling CriminalCases on Drunk Driving of Motor Vehicles (Fa Fa [2013] No.15). The enforcement ofthe Opinions plays a positive role in specifying and unifying law’s application to criminal cases on drunk driving, guaranteeing the enforcement of law and severelypunishing criminal the behavior of drunk driving. However, the Opinions only referto dangerous driving like drunk driving and make regulations on four aspects, whileother issues needed to be solved in the practice are not involved.This thesis mainly introduces, from the background of legislation of dangerousdriving, the reasons why dangerous driving is criminalized. In recent years, as moreand more traffic accidents taking place in China, the behaviors of drunk driving andchasing driving have damaged the society, which puts a serious threat to road safetyand should be regulated by Criminal Law. However, before2011, the concept ofdangerous driving was not clearly defined from the legislative level. Therefore, thethis paper focuses on the following aspects: a brief summary of the connotation ofdangerous driving from two aspects: the theory and the legal provision; the analysisand study on the fundamental nature of dangerous driving with a combination ofdangerous criminal; a classification of dangerous driving by analyzing the damage,the behavior and the infringed objects; a brief introduction to some developedcountries’ advanced provisions on dangerous driving which shall be used forreference for the legislation of our country.The connotation and nature of dangerous driving should be defined exactly,which is conducive to precisely affirm the legal status and fundamental nature of thiscrime and consolidates the basis of completing some relevant supporting systems. Onthe basis of the provisions in the Amendment to Criminal Law (VIII), the dangerousdriving behavior can be divided into competitive chasing driving and drunk driving.Firstly, it should be analyzed from subjective and objective aspects that whetheractors’ behaviors can be identified as competitive chasing driving. On the basis of theprovisions of dangerous driving crime in Criminal Law of China, actors will becommitted to the crime of dangerous driving duo to competitive chasing driving if their circumstances are severe. However, there are no explicit stipulations for theextent of bad behaviors. It is believed that it should be analyzed and judgedcomprehensively from actors’ condition, actors’ subjective attitudes or motivations tocompetitive chasing driving and the potential harms to society of this behavior.Secondly, whether the drunk-driving actors commit the crime of dangerous driving ornot depends on that whether their behaviors violate the drinking criteria in Chineserelevant legislation.It is the similarities and differences in judicial application between the dangerousdriving and other relevant crimes like traffic accident crime and endangering publicsafety with dangerous means crime that should be sorted out and analyzed accurately.At the beginning of the criminalization of dangerous driving, Supreme People’sCourt, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security holddifferent views on whether the Proviso in Criminal Law is applicable for the crime ornot. They have not reached a consensus until Opinions on Issues Concerning theLaws Applied to Handling Criminal Cases on Drunk Driving of Motor Vehicles (Fa Fa[2013] No.15) is published, that is, the blood alcohol content is the only criterion tojudge the alcoholic intoxication. Therefore, the proviso can’t come into effect forjudges to settle lawsuits. The dangerous driving behaviors should not only bepunished through drastic measures in the penal law, but also be specified entirely inthe aspects of criminal legislation policy and social comprehensive managementaccording to the spirits of integrating education into punishment in criminal law sothat the safe and civilized transportation environment will be created.Through studying above issues, the concept and composition of dangerousdriving have been overall analyzed, and some problems about its nature and whetherdrunk driving should be incriminated equally or not have also been elaborated. In themeanwhile, some other issues have also been further discussed such as the identification of some conditions such as vicious offence, road, drunk driving andvehicles, as well as other dangerous driving behaviors. And deficiencies of legislationhave been analyzed and some advices are proposed. It is hoped that through thisthesis, the principal crime could be better applied in judicial practice.