Study On The Rationality Of Canceling "Seeking Interests For Others" In Bribery

According to article 385 of the Criminal Law of China,“seeking interests for others” is an essential element of accepting bribery.However,there is no agreement on its position in the provision in academic and practical departments.Is it a subjective requisite or objective one? Is there any necessary correlation between this constitutive requirement and the essence of bribery crime? Disputes at these questions increase the difficulty of the identification of bribery crime,leading to inconsistent results of judgement.Besides,this constitutive requirement is playing a role as a barrier in responding to corruption crimes which lack of the behavior of seeking interest,such as accepting emotional investment.There are three paths that we can use to try to solve this problem.The first one is to expand the extension of the requirement by rolling out relevant judicatory explanation.However,based on the analysis on the position of “seeking interests for others” in the provision,we find that the earlier theory of objective requisite,with its own disadvantages though,is the most reasonable one among existing theories.According to this theory,“seeking interests for others” refers to actual behavior.In other words,it is impossible to regard accepting emotional investment as bribery crime and stick to the principle of legality at the same time.Though taking this method will respond to the requirement of fighting with accepting emotional investment rapidly,it goes against the the principle of legality.Therefore,relying on judicatory explanation is not a permanent solution to the problem.The second choice is to set up special accusation aiming at accepting emotional investment,while it may bring new legal loophole,increase the difficulties in juridical practice and other disadvantages.In consequence,canceling “seeking interests for others” is the most optimal path to control emotional investment.The following problem is that whether canceling this constitutive requirement destructs the essence of bribery crime.By analyzing,it can be found that the public official’s honesty and cleanness is the essence of bribery crime,which has no necessary correlation with “seeking interests for others”.That is to say,canceling this constitutive requirement will not harm the essence of bribery crime.Certainly,appealing to the legislature to cancel it only because of the demand of controlling accepting emotional investment is not convincing enough.Therefore,this thesis discuss the positive significance of canceling the constitutive requirement from theaspects of legislation,theory and juridical practice to prove its feasibility and rationality.Besides,the paper attempts to explore several solutions to the problems that may be brought by the canceling of this constitutive requirement.In conclusion,canceling “seeking interests for others”,which contributes to the challenges in theory and practice,is feasible and reasonable.It is beneficial to optimize the anti-corruption legal system and to promote the anti-corruption efforts further.