The Crime Of Illegal Business Operation Shall Be Applied Under The Principle Of Adapting Crime And Punishment

The Criminal Law Code of PRC(1997)stipulates the Crime of Illegal Business Operations(CIBO)which is evolved from the Crime of Illegal Speculation and Profiteering in the Criminal Law Code of PRC(1979).Section 225 gives the definition and penalty of the crime and its different forms and it also has a Miscellaneous Subsection as "other behaviors seriously disrupt the market order".The legislature put a supplement to it through one single file in late 1998 and revised it through two amendments in 1999 and 2009 respectively.Since the enactment of the Criminal Law Code of PRC(1997),the definition of this crime changes the most rapidly.CIBO is one typical statutory offense and its purpose is to safeguard the order of the market and economy.The order of market are prone to be unstable because of the development of productive forces,progress of the means of production and the demand of the market.The order of economy sate has the nature of politics and relativity.The provisions of Criminal Code should be stable and cannot be changed or revised very often which is the reason that some of the sections of the Code need one Miscellaneous Subsection.The factors as above render so much difficulty such as the vagueness of the border of elements of measurement of penalty,large span of the principal punishments,the punishments are of little bit severity and criteria for supplementary punishments is difficult to find for the enforcement of CIBO.More serious,these side effects will result different verdicts for the cases with same backgrounds.If so,both the credibility and the authority of the Code will be questioned.The element as violation in a serious nature for CIBO and the element as violation in a serious nature or very serious nature is decided by the illegal turnover of the crime under most of the circumstances.The illegal turnover is evaluated mostly by the determination of the price which follow the guide of an inference price which may vary much because of so many reasons.The difficulties and problems as above sometimes let some of the criminals at large and sometimes punish someone too seriously.This dissertation explores the different elements of CIBO from the corresponding statutory provisions and judicial interpretations.The author finds the shortcomings of these regulations and their bad effect in judicial practice.At last,the author holds that the Principle of legality and Principle of Suiting Responsibility and Punishment are the motto of enforcement of CIBO.