Examining China's Justifiable Defense System From The "Kunshan Anti-Killing Case"

Justifiable defense is based on the inherent retaliatory psychology and resistance instinct of human beings,which gives citizens the right to self-relief when they suffer from illegal violations.Article 20 of the Criminal Law of China expressly stipulates this.However,since modern times,it is believed that private citizens are not allowed to solve conflicts and disputes in a society ruled by law with a complete legal system for relieving individual rights.Therefore,it is controversial to what extent the exercise of the right of legitimate defense,as one of the ways for citizens to solve disputes by themselves,is allowed.In judicial practice,the final determination of legitimate defense cases is limited,and the scope of illegal infringement is strictly limited objectively.In most cases,the judgment of defense limits is only "consequentialism".On December 18,2018,the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the twelfth batch of guiding cases.The focus of this batch of guiding cases is on the issue of "legitimate defense" and the "Kunshan anti-killing case" is one of them.This case is a typical case of the legitimate defense system in the judicial practice.This article is divided into three parts.The first part summarizes the basic situation of the case and the controversial focuses;the second part,based on the controversial focuses of the case,systematically discusses the key theoretical issues of the legitimate defense system:the determination of the concept of "assault" in Article 20,paragraph 3,of the Criminal Law,the clarity of the end time point of unlawful infringement and the rules for determining the limits of defense.The third part,combined with the guiding opinions of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the "Kunshan Anti-Killing Case",uses the legal knowledge proposed in Chapter II to analyze and determine the focuses of the dispute in this case.At the same time,this case in the judicial practice has a follow-up guiding significance of the theory of refining and summarizing,further showing the "Kunshan Anti-Killing Case" in the definition of justifiable defense in the judicial milestone.