Comparative Criminal Law and International Criminal Law Special Topics: Collection of Criminal Law Works by Zhao Bingzhi. 4

Author: Zhao Bingzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Reform and opening-up is the main theme of contemporary China. Promoting the rule of law reform is the mission of contemporary legal professionals. Since my undergraduate studies, I was introduced to the field of criminal law by the renowned Chinese criminologists Professor Gao Mingxuan and Professor Wang Zuofu. I was attracted by the breadth and depth of their theories, the richness of their content, and the indispensable role they play, thus forging an inseparable bond with criminal law research. During my studies for the first doctoral program in criminal law in China, especially in the more than ten years after obtaining my doctorate, I coincided with the nation's research and revision of the criminal law, and I was fortunate enough to participate in it. Additionally, due to my research interests, the issue of criminal law reform became one of my main areas of dedication over the years, gradually forming my own insights on criminal law reform. The current stage of criminal law reform in China is a combination of objective needs and subjective aspirations. On one hand, the changes of the times and social progress serve as the inherent driving force for criminal law reform. The establishment of the goal of governing the country according to law and building a developed, civilized socialist rule-of-law state, as well as the shortcomings in the existing level of criminal rule of law, make criminal law reform an urgent necessity. On the other hand, the timely initiation of criminal law reform and its inclusion on the agenda of national rule-of-law reform depend on the subjective understanding of the objective needs of criminal law reform by its main stakeholders (primarily legislative bodies, the criminal law academic community, and judicial practice circles, with the state leadership and the public also playing influential roles), the grasp of the timing for criminal law reform, and the creation of its conditions. The purpose of China's criminal law reform is to achieve the scientificization and modernization of criminal rule of law, in order to safeguard and promote the development and progress of society. The principles that China's criminal law reform should follow include: first, combining the foundation in China's national conditions with the reference to advanced foreign criminal rule-of-law experiences; second, combining a focus on the present with scientific foresight into the future; and third, combining legislative reform with judicial reform.