Criminal Law Review (Volume 6)

Author: Chen Xingliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-06-01
Features: Volume 6 of Criminal Law Review focuses on the fundamental theoretical issues of criminal legal governance. Currently, as the rule of law enters the mainstream discourse system of society, criminal legal governance has also gained prominence. I myself am one of the staunch advocates and promoters of criminal legal governance. I have always believed that there is a need for enlightenment regarding criminal legal governance. I firmly believe that ideas and theories possess immense vitality and influence. Reform of the system must be preceded by progress in thought. When discussing the rule of law, it prompted me to think about a question: What does the rule of law truly mean? And what is the measure to assess its degree? I believe that in the process of legalizing society, both legislation and adjudication are equally important. In terms of legislation and adjudication, legislation is relatively easier to implement. Here, "easier to implement" refers to the fact that enacting laws is not difficult. In the past, was our legislative body not like a legislative machine, continuously producing a large number of legal texts and achieving the transformation from a state of having no laws to having laws almost overnight? The issue lies in whether these legal texts have played a role in real-life social contexts after their enactment. If they have not, then the laws remain mere "dead laws". Therefore, the mere increase in the quantity of legal texts cannot be a measure of the degree of the rule of law. It can be said that the rule of law does not simply mean the issuance of a large number of legal texts, but rather the practical implementation of these laws in real life, making them "living laws." In this sense, we should pay more attention to judicial activities, as only adjudication is the key to the rule of law. To adapt to the needs of rule-of-law construction, China's judicial system faces transformation. As a result, the issue of judicial reform has attracted the attention of the entire society, and even expectations that judicial reform could serve as a breakthrough point for political system reform.