Present Situation And Thinking Of Criminal Judicial Interpretation In China

As a major source of law, judicial interpretation plays a significant role in adjusting social relations and safeguarding social justice. Through judicial interpretation, uncertain legal concepts are clarified and the abuses of judicial discretion are reduced. So the law can be implemented uniformly. Judicial interpretation is crucial in maintaining a delicate balance between the stability and flexibility of law, achieving justice in the process of applying abstract legal rules to individual cases, pursuing harmoniousness between the limitation of law and the complexity of social problems, bridging the gap between the law on paper and legal practice. With the development of rule of law and expansion of judicial functions, the legislature alone cannot meet the increasing demands of legal practice for interpreting the law because of the current legislative process and heavy workload. It is expected that judicial interpretation would be further strengthened and developed. However, there exist quite a few problems with the current judicial interpretation system, both in legal theory and practice. This has attracted controversies among scholars and legal professionals. Therefore, it is increasingly urgent to deepen the study of judicial interpretation and to establish a sound framework of judicial interpretation.This paper analyzes the theoretical features of judicial interpretation in criminal law. It then examines the current situation of judicial interpretation and various factors that restrain judicial interpretation and ways to improve judicial interpretation in criminal law. The purpose of this paper is to put forward proposals, both from theoretical and practical perspectives, of standardizing and perfecting judicial interpretation in China.Judicial interpretation has a long history and dates back to the time when written code formed. Study of the development of judicial interpretation in ancient China shows that glossarists were dominant with focus on exegetic explanation of law. The contentof judicial inteipretation at that time included the interpretation of statutes, which was a major part of the code, and interpretation of subordinate laws and decrees. The aim of judicial interpretation was to properly explain the implied meaning and spirit of legal rules in conformity with the will of authority, thus helping the law be implemented uniformly. The organizations empowered to interoperate the law were various and ways they adopted also were diverse. Judicial interpretation in civil law countries recognized only legislative interpretation in the beginning, then switched to the opposite, recognizing only judicial interpretation. While in the common law countries, the power of interoperating the law historically belongs to the court and legislative interpretation is not as significant as judges' interpretation. The examination of the history of judicial interpretation in China and other civil law and common law countries can help us understand the necessity and fortuity of judicial interpretation in certain period of time. So reference can be made to history and practice in other jurisdictions when we try to design the legal framework of judicial interpretation in China. Through study of judicial interpretation in criminal law and its necessity and comparative analysis of special features of judicial interpretation in criminal law, we can better understand the features of judicial interpretation and the current situation and reasons behind the development of judicial interpretation. In this way, we can lay a solid foundation for suggestions of improving judicial interpretation.Analysis of the current judicial interpretation in criminal law points to five existing problems. First, judicial interpretation has overstepped its authority. Some of them have encroached upon the territory of legislature. Second, judicial interpretation has taken various forms. There are dozens of names relating to judicial interpretation. The format also varies. Third, some judicial interpretations are low in quality and even cannot be carried out in practice. Forth, the procedure of drafting judicial interpretation is not well designed and often unknown to the public, which goes against the principle of transparency and can lead to judicial unfairness. Fifth,Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate often collide with each other in the content and hierarchy of judicial interpretation, which has caused difficulties in law enforcement.The reasons for the above-mentioned problems can be summarized into two aspects. First, from law perspective, the lack of harmoniousness in various laws has led to the fact that the power of judicial interpretation falls into the hands of many government branches. The backwardness of legal construction and the laconic style of criminal law and the lack of prudence contribute to the problems with the content, the format and the procedure of judicial interpretation. Second, from practical perspective, ineffective supervision from legislature and malfeasance of judicial organs result in the abuse of the power of judicial interpretation and inappropriate interpretations.To solve the above-mentioned problems, judicial interpretation should follow such principles as lawfulness, rationalness, coordination, passiveness and transparency.Based on the above-mentioned principles, the author puts forward the following proposals. First, legislative interpretation should be strengthened and enhanced. Efforts should be made to strengthen the organizations in charge of criminal law interpretation. Legislative technique should be improved. We should advance criminal law interpretation actively while avoiding crossing the legal boundary of judicial interpretation in criminal law. Second, Judicial Interpretation Law should be enacted to standardize the procedure of judicial interpretation. Third, judicial interpretation system should be reshaped. We should put into place the system in which only Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate have the authority of interpreting the law. Fourth, the function of case law in judicial interpretation should be further enhanced. We should establish the Chinese case law system compatible with our national situations. Fifthly, a sound supervision system of judicial interpretation should be established. We should further strengthen the supervisorywork of the Standing Committee of NPCC and establish the system through which unlawful judicial interpretation in criminal law can be repealed. The organizations in charge of judicial interpretation should set up built-in supervision system to ensure the quality of judicial interpretation.