Criminal Law Commentary (Volume 2004)

Author: Zhao Bingzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Since its debut in June 2004, Criminal Law Review (Volume 1·2003) has received considerable praise from readers, with some esteemed scholars offering valuable suggestions for improvement. This has undoubtedly strengthened our confidence in continuing to produce Criminal Law Review. In 2004, the Center for Criminal Law Science at Renmin University of China achieved new heights in academic endeavors, adding further achievements to its repertoire. The Center not only successfully hosted (co-hosted) a dozen international and domestic academic conferences, such as the First China-South Korea Criminal Law Symposium, the 3rd (9th) Japan-China Criminal Law Symposium in the 21st Century, the Sino-U.S. Symposium on Hot Issues in Criminal Law, the 2nd China-South Korea Criminal Law Symposium, the China-UK Series Forums on Limiting the Scope of Capital Punishment, the Symposium on Difficult Issues in Intellectual Property Crime, and the Special Academic Symposium on the Return of Capital Punishment Appellate Authority to the Supreme People's Court, but also assisted the China Law Society in organizing the 17th International Society of Criminal Law Congress. It conducted academic exchanges with more than ten countries and regions, including the United States, Russia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the Hong Kong, Macao Special Administrative Regions, as well as Taiwan. Moreover, the Center published over 50 academic works, including Chinese Criminal Law Cases and Theoretical Studies (6 volumes) and Comparative Studies on Emerging Crimes in the Contemporary Era (10 volumes), and published more than 130 academic papers. At the same time, the full-time and part-time researchers, as well as doctoral and master's students of the Center, continued to actively engage with the realities of criminal law and justice, publishing hundreds of short essays, commentaries, and interviews in various media, which generated widespread and positive impacts on society and provided a solid foundation for further improving Criminal Law Review. The 80 short essays in Criminal Law Review (2004 volume) are selected from more than 100 short essays, interviews, and commentaries published by full-time and some part-time researchers, as well as doctoral and master's students of the Center in various media in 2004. The content includes the progress of constitutional amendment and criminal law and justice, the scope of regulation by criminal law, the evaluation standards of criminal acts, the implementation of the principle of legality in criminal law, criminal law interpretation, the relationship between conviction and personality, the modernization of criminal punishment, the limitation of capital punishment, the execution of property penalties, corruption crimes, human rights protection in combating terrorist crimes, cyber crimes, the criminal law protection of social credit, the decriminalization of victimless crimes, criminal law issues arising from entrapment investigations, the criminal law protection of consumer rights, the amnesty for economic crimes, the Abu Ghraib scandal involving U.S. troops in Iraq and international human rights protection issues, as well as other issues in the application of criminal law. The scope covered encompasses all the important issues that existed or emerged in the field of criminal law and justice in 2004. We are fully aware that the construction of criminal law and justice is not an overnight task and cannot be independently undertaken by any wise, virtuous, or dedicated individual. It relies on the advocacy, promotion, and practice of knowledgeable individuals at all levels and in all aspects, and even more so on the awakening of the public's legal awareness and the emergence of legal demands. Therefore, we hope that Criminal Law Review can, under the guidance of the state's basic policy on the construction of criminal law and justice, awaken legal awareness with its concise yet powerful writings and resolute and spirited voice, foster legal demands, advocate legal concepts, promote legal progress, and implement legal policies, thereby making its due contribution to the construction of criminal law and justice in our country.