's movie " Article 20 ", which is currently being screened in major theaters across the country, revolves around the "justifiable defense" content of Article 20 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" and has aroused widespread public attention.
The film connects three stories involving "justifiable defense" in parallel and intertwines with each other to tell the fate of three families. It vividly interprets the sentence "We are not handling cases, but other people's lives" full of sense of responsibility and mission. lines.
▲Network picture
Three "legitimate defense" stories
Story 1 : The bus driver Zhang Guisheng found a gangster bullying a female passenger while driving. He acted bravely and struggled with the gangster, knocking him to the ground, and picked up a fire extinguisher and threw it at the gangster. head, causing the other party's skull to fracture. Prosecutor Han Ming prosecuted Zhang Guisheng for intentional injury. Zhang Guisheng insisted that he was acting in self-defense and insisted on seeking an explanation after his release. In the end, he died in a car accident without waiting for justice to be served.
Story 2 : Han Yuchen, a loan student, saw Zhang Ke and others bullying his classmates and stepped forward, beating the bully Zhang Ke until his nose was broken. Because Zhang Ke's father is the dean of education at the school, the bullied classmates did not dare to come forward to accuse Zhang Ke. As a result, Han Yuchen fell into a passive position. Not only might he not be able to continue studying in this key middle school, but he might also be subject to criminal punishment. Director Zhang said that if Han Yuchen apologized in person, he would not pursue the case. But Han Yuchen believed that he acted bravely and was not wrong, and insisted not to apologize to Zhang Ke.
Story 3 : Wang Yongqiang, a middle-aged man, his wife and young daughter are both deaf-mute and disabled. In order to treat his daughter's illness, he borrowed a loan from village tyrant Liu Wenjing at a high interest rate. Because he could not pay back the money, he was humiliated by Liu Wenjing for a long time. After his wife Hao Xiuping was raped by Liu Wenjing, Wang Yongqiang struggled with Liu Wenjing. Liu Wenjing threatened to kill Wang Yongqiang with a knife. Wang Yongqiang stabbed Liu Wenjing with scissors, and Liu Wenjing later died.
Wang Yongqiang’s behavior is legitimate defense or intentional harm? It became the main line of the movie's story.
▲Internet picture
Procuratorate police officer explains “legitimate defense” in detail
A police officer from the Sixth Procuratorate Department of Qingpu District People’s Procuratorate who did not want to be named told reporters in an interview that the title “Article 20” refers to Article 20 of the Criminal Law, that is, "Justifiable defense" clause.
Article 20 of the "Criminal Law" stipulates that in order to protect the country, public interests, the person, property and other rights of the person 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. If
's legitimate defense obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes serious damage, he shall bear criminal responsibility, but the punishment shall be reduced or exempted.
If a person takes defensive actions against ongoing assaults, murders, robberies, rapes, kidnappings, and other violent crimes that seriously endanger personal safety, resulting in casualties or casualties, this does not constitute excessive defense and will not bear criminal responsibility.
The procuratorate police officer explained that legitimate defense has the following applicable conditions:
(1) Cause condition. The premise of legitimate defense in is the existence of illegal infringement. Unlawful infringement includes both infringement of the rights to life and health, as well as infringement of personal freedom, public and private property and other rights; it includes both criminal acts and illegal acts; it includes both unlawful infringement against the individual and harm to the national and public interests or unlawful infringement against others.
(2) time condition. legitimate defense must be directed against ongoing illegal infringement. If the illegal infringement has formed a real and imminent danger, it shall be deemed that the illegal infringement has begun; if the illegal infringement is temporarily interrupted or stopped, but the illegal infringer still has a realistic possibility of continuing to commit the infringement, the illegal infringement shall be determined as illegal infringement. is still ongoing; if the illegal intruder has indeed lost the ability to infringe or has truly given up the infringement, the illegal infringement shall be deemed to have ended. As to whether the unlawful infringement has begun or ended, a reasonable judgment should be made in accordance with the law based on the situation in which the defender was defending, in accordance with the public's general understanding, and should not be harsh on the defender.
(3) object condition. legitimate defense must be carried out against the illegal intruder. If multiple people jointly commit illegal infringement, the defense can be carried out against the person who directly commits the illegal infringement, or against the person who jointly commits the illegal infringement at the scene.
(4) intent condition. legitimate defense must be to protect the country, public interests, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from illegal infringement. Defensive provocations that intentionally provoke the other party to harm you through words, actions, etc. and then fight back should not be considered defensive behavior.
According to the second paragraph of Article 20 of the Criminal Law, the determination of excessive defense should meet the two conditions of "obviously exceeding the necessary limit" and "causing significant damage", both of which are indispensable. When determines the degree of harm caused by illegal infringement, we must not only consider the damage that has been caused, but also consider the imminent danger and realistic possibility of causing further damage. The defender should not be required to adopt a counterattack method and intensity that is basically equivalent to the unlawful infringement. "causing significant damage" refers to causing serious injury or death to the illegal intruder. Minor injury or less damage is not considered major damage.
Paragraph 3 of Article 20 of the Criminal Law regarding the "unlimited right of defense" essentially includes unlimited defense scope and unlimited defense intensity. The applicable conditions are: (1) The cause must be violence that endangers personal safety. criminal behavior. Although actual damage has not yet been caused, if it has caused serious and imminent danger to personal safety, it can be deemed as "murder". (2) The interests protected by defensive actions are limited to personal safety and do not include other legitimate rights and interests, such as property rights.
The police officer said that a series of cases such as the "Kunshan Longge counter-murder case", "Fuzhou Zhao Yu case", "Laiyuan counter-murder case" and "Lijiang Tang Xue case" have made the legitimate defense clause no longer "sleep".
▲Internet picture
"The law cannot yield to the law"
The police officer told reporters that in order to respond to social concerns and build judicial consensus, on September 3, 2020, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "On the Application of Justifiable Defense in accordance with the Law" "Guiding Opinions on the System", which clearly points out that it is necessary to effectively prevent the wrong practices of "whoever makes trouble is justified" and "whoever is killed or injured is justified" and resolutely defend the spirit of the rule of law that "the law cannot give in to the law".
"The law cannot give in to the law." This legal motto was first proposed by the German criminal law scholar Bernard in the mid-19th century. He wrote: "If the basis of legitimate defense is that the law does not need to give in to the law, then this is not only It means that a certain person has the right to legitimate defense, and it also means that everyone whose rights have been infringed has the right to legitimate defense."
Chen Xingliang, a professor at Peking University Law School, pointed out that the legal motto "the law cannot give in to the law" is inseparable from the process of building our country under the rule of law. The contradiction between defensive behavior and infringement behavior is actually the relationship between law and illegality, righteousness and injustice. As a legitimate right, the law encourages citizens to actively exercise their right to legitimate defense.
The law cannot give in to illegality. This is not only a requirement of legislation, but also the bottom line of justice. People generally pay attention to how judicial organs determine legitimate defense behavior because it is related to social fairness and justice and is everyone's vital interest. In the face of infringement by lawbreakers, only by exercising the right of defense promptly and properly can we stop illegal infringement and reduce personal and property losses as much as possible.
"Encourage courage to act for justice and promote social righteousness." should become a social concept generally recognized by the public. In judicial practice, when faced with different types of legitimate defense cases, judicial organs should judge the boundaries between legitimate defense and excessive defense from the perspective of ordinary citizens, effectively promote the concept of the rule of law that safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of legitimate defense persons, and strive to achieve the ultimate goal. Excellent legal, political and social effects.
