As soon as the Spring Festival movie "Article 20" was released, it aroused heated discussions from all walks of life. As the first legal-themed film in China that focuses on the topic of "justifiable defense," what real-life cases does this film refer to? What are the difficulties in determining legitimate defense in reality? Scholars, lawyers, prosecutors and netizens expressed their opinions.
The film also received attention from the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. "Internet celebrity professor" Luo Xiang also commented in an article that "the essence of legitimate defense is to empower the people and encourage the people to fight against illegal infringements. The law does not need to give in to the law."
△Movie "Article 20" poster
The Supreme Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a document, and Luo Xiang also spoke out
The title of the movie "Article 20" is taken from Article 20 of my country's "Criminal Law", and it tells the story of "justice" The justice and humanity behind the "defense" laws. In the film, Han Ming (played by Lei Jiayin) encountered a series of troubles since he took a temporary job at the Municipal Procuratorate. His son Han Yuchen (played by Liu Yaowen) beat the son of the school leader (played by Zhang Yi) and refused to apologize. His wife Li Maojuan (played by Ma Li) was so indignant that she accidentally injured the school leader; he and his partner Lu Lingling (played by Gao Ye) had constant disagreements, and the case was dragged out for a long time. Undecided...
What is legitimate defense? Article 20 of my country's "Criminal Law" stipulates: In order to protect the country, public interests, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing illegal infringement, actions taken to stop the illegal infringement cause damage to the illegal infringer. , it is legitimate defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
Many netizens commented after reading: "There are laughter and tears, emotions and reasons, flesh and blood, warmth and strength. It speaks for the weak and lets more people know about legitimate defense!"
"'What we handle is not a case, but other people's lives. '. "Article 20" is really an excellent and powerful literary and artistic work, and its entertaining and entertaining presentation is even more thought-provoking."
The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate also spoke out one after another. The Supreme People's Court issued an article on February 15 titled "The law cannot bow to lawlessness"! "Looking at Justifiable Defense in Criminal Law from the Movie <第二十条>"; the Supreme People's Procuratorate even published multiple articles commenting on the movie.
"Internet celebrity professor" Luo Xiang also posted a video saying, "This movie is more than just a law popularization movie" and "This matter is really closely related to everyone." Luo Xiang issued an article stating that the most controversial aspect of the legitimate defense system stipulated in Article 20 of the Criminal Law in terms of substantive law is the urgency of time conditions and the appropriateness of limiting conditions. Justifiable defense must occur during the ongoing unlawful infringement. But what does “in process” mean? No matter in the mother-humiliation murder case or the Yu XX murder case, this issue was originally controversial. The second dispute is the appropriateness of the limiting conditions, which cannot significantly exceed the necessary limits and cause significant damage. Luo Xiang believes that if the defensive behavior is legitimate but the result is improper; or the defensive behavior is improper but the result is legitimate, it does not constitute excessive defense.
"Article 20" refers to cases such as the "Kunshan Anti-Murder Case"
According to Zhang Tingting, producer of the Film and Television Center of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the storyline of the film is based on multiple legitimate defense cases in reality. "The creative team learned a lot of legal knowledge, went to the municipal procuratorate to experience life, and created many vivid and ordinary characters. We hope that in this way, legal knowledge can better enter the hearts of the audience."
Since 2018, A series of legitimate defense cases handled under the direct guidance of the Supreme People's Procuratorate have activated the "sleeping clause" on legitimate defense and demonstrated its function of protecting people's rights and interests. The "Kunshan Anti-Murder Case" in 2018 was one of them. This case attracted attention from all walks of life at the time. At first, the public security organ opened an investigation as "Yu XX's intentional injury case". A few days later, based on the facts discovered during the investigation and the provisions of Article 20, Paragraph 3 of the "Criminal Law", the police determined that Yu XX's behavior was self-defense. , does not bear criminal responsibility, and decided to withdraw the case of intentional injury to a certain person in accordance with the law. At that time, the Supreme People's Procuratorate directed the Jiangsu Procuratorate to intervene in advance, put forward qualitative opinions on the case, supported the public security organs in withdrawing the case, and publicly released it as a typical case of legitimate defense.
Wang Yong, deputy prosecutor of the Suzhou Municipal Procuratorate, was the prosecutor who handled the "Kunshan Anti-Murder Case". Regarding "Article 20", Wang Yong believes that many case investigators are accustomed to observing calmly from the perspective of hindsight and the role of an outsider, which makes it difficult to capture the behavioral motives and subjective purposes hidden in the hearts of the parties. More importantly, this will lose the best perspective on the human nature of the case. Case handlers should change their thinking and use the idea of "like I am suing" to put themselves into the scene and assume the roles of different parties. After drawing preliminary conclusions, they can then use complex and sophisticated technical rules to verify their conclusions. Any case must be judged based on the cause, process, and consistent performance of the perpetrator.
In addition to the "Kunshan Anti-Murder Case", "Fuzhou Zhao Yu Case", "Laiyuan Anti-Murder Case", "Lijiang Tang Xue Case" and other series of legitimate defense cases, the legitimate defense clause is no longer "sleeping".
Experts, scholars, and lawyers outside the drama had heated discussions
"Article 20" also aroused discussions among some experts, scholars, and lawyers.
"The three cases presented in the film have one thing in common, that is, they will all bring discussions about legitimate defense, excessive defense, and intentional injury." Zhang Jianwei, a professor at Tsinghua University Law School, said, "In judicial practice, similar cases Whether it constitutes legitimate defense has always been an issue that judicial organs have long been concerned about and discussed." Self-defense is a key word throughout the narrative of the movie "Article 20". The bus driver who wanted to seek explanation for his legitimate self-defense behavior, the middle school student who injured the perpetrator to stop school bullying, the villagers who could not bear the anger and resisted the village bully...
Han Xu, a professor at Sichuan University Law School, wrote an article, The movie "Article 20" vividly interprets the provisions of Article 20 of the "Criminal Law" on legitimate defense through case after case. It is a "good" legal provision. Through the real-life "Kunshan Anti-Killing Case", the "Article 20" of the Criminal Law, which has been dormant for many years, was activated, allowing the audience to feel that those brave enough to do justice cannot be allowed to "bleed and shed tears", so that the law can truly become the force to defend rights. Whether it is the "Wang Yongqiang Case" in the movie or the real-life "Kunshan Anti-Murder Case", they all illustrate and highlight the living law-the important role of judicial officers in case handling.
Zuo Yingchun, deputy director of the Criminal Law Professional Committee of the Nanjing Bar Association and a lawyer at Jiangsu Zhongli Law Firm, told the Modern Express reporter that in the past, the legitimate defense clause was called a "sleeping clause" or even a "zombie clause" by many in the legal field. In real life, there are some simple and crude practices - "fighting each other", "winners go to jail, losers are hospitalized", "whoever makes trouble is justified", "whoever is killed or injured is justified", which leads to the "sleep" of the legitimate defense clause. With the advancement of the rule of law and the improvement of people's legal awareness, this situation is improving. Every judicial practitioner should be responsible for the facts, the law, fairness and justice, cultivate such a soil, and strive to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
Modern Express/Modern + Reporter Gu Yuansen Comprehensive Supreme Procuratorate Weibo, Procuratorate Daily, Ifeng.com
Picture source: "Article 20" official Weibo
