A Study On The Criminal Legislation On China's Jurisdictional Zones Beyond Territorial Waters

With the successful implementation of the Marine Power Strategy and One Belt and One Road Initiative,China's marine economy has rapidly developed and made great achievements recent years.Meanwhile,crimes occurred in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,such as the contiguous zone,the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf,have also gradually increased.It is how to exercise criminal jurisdiction by China in its jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters that has become a difficult problem faced by China's marine economy.To solve this problem,the Supreme People's Court issued two judicial interpretations concerning the sea in 2016,namely,the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Trial of the Relevant Cases Occurring in Sea Areas under the Jurisdiction of China(I)and Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Trial of the Relevant Cases Occurring in Sea Areas under the Jurisdiction of China(II).The two judicial interpretations concerning the sea have clarified the application of China's criminal law in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters and stipulated the conviction and sentencing of some crimes at China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters.However,the above-mentioned criminal legislation is still not sufficient.In order to provide a sufficient criminal legal basis for the protection of maritime rights and interests in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,this paper has made a study on the above-mentioned deficiencies.This study includes the introduction,the main body and the conclusion.The main body is divided into three chapters.The first chapter involves three sections.The first section introduces the basic theories of the scope of China's Jurisdictional Zones beyond Territorial Waters,the basic contents of criminal legislation and the general principles of the exercise of criminal jurisdiction,aiming to provide the basis for the analysis and argumentation of the following.The second section analyzes the foundation in international law of criminal legislation on China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,that is,whether China has criminal jurisdiction in the waters or not.The third section examines the current situation of criminal legislation on China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters and puts forward some existing problems,including the spatial validity of the criminal law in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters and the conviction and sentencing of the crimesoccurring in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters.The second chapter,including three sections,mainly analyzes issues relating to the spatial validity of the criminal law in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters.The first section explains the connotation and extension of the concept of "the realm of the People's Republic of China" from the perspectives of liberal interpretation,historical interpretation,system interpretation and purpose interpretation.By analyzing the different viewpoints of scholars and the coastal states in the nature of criminal jurisdiction in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,the second section puts forward the viewpoint recognized in this paper.On the basis of the second section and the first section,the third section makes a detailed analysis of the domestic legislation of Russia and Norway,analyzes the model of criminal code,amendment to criminal law and legislative interpretation and designs the specific provisions in accordance with China's national conditions by reference to foreign experience.The third chapter,including two sections,mainly deals with issues relating to the conviction and sentencing of the crimes occurring in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters.The first section sorts out and analyzes three deficiencies of the provisions concerning the conviction and sentencing of the crimes occurring in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,that is,some crimes are difficult to adapt to the special nature of sea,the inconsistency between the criminal code and the subsidiary criminal law,and the maritime rights and interests in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters are not stipulated in China's Criminal Law.Against the above defects,the second section introduces the legislation of Russia,Japan and Malaysia,analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the three legislative models,namely,the amendment to the criminal law,the single criminal law and the subsidiary criminal law,establishes the types of crimes in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters,and puts forward specific suggestion on how to perfect the provisions concerning the conviction and sentencing of the crimes occurring in China's jurisdictional zones beyond territorial waters.