How does the criminal law stipulate self-defense?
Paragraph 1 of Article 20 of the Criminal Law stipulates: "In order to protect the state, public interests, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing illegal infringement, stopping illegal infringement and causing damage to the illegal infringer, it belongs to legitimate defense and does not bear criminal responsibility." It can be seen that self-defense is a legal right granted to citizens by the state. It is not a means of revenge, nor the right to punish criminals, so it is not a punishment measure. Moreover, self-defense is to stop the ongoing illegal infringement, not to prevent the illegal infringer from committing crimes in the future.
Self-defense is a necessary means to protect legal rights in an emergency and cause certain damage to illegal infringers. The unity of the exercise conditions of the right of legitimate defense is the composition of legitimate defense, including subjective conditions and objective conditions. Objectively speaking, justifiable defense is a legitimate act to fight against illegal and criminal acts and protect legitimate rights and interests from infringement. Not only harmless to society, but also beneficial to society. Subjectively, justifiable defense is a kind of defensive behavior that defenders take to resist and stop illegal infringement in order to protect the interests of the country, the public and others, as well as their own or others' legitimate rights.
Subjectively, the actor has no intention or negligence to harm society, which is the essential difference between him and crime. Because self-defense is carried out in a way that causes damage to the illegal infringer, the law prohibits the abuse of the right of defense. Only qualified acts of self-defense are justified and do not bear criminal responsibility.
What are the conditions for self-defense?
(a) the cause and condition, that is, the existence of illegal infringement.
Justifiable defense can only be carried out against unlawful infringement, which is the essence of justifiable defense. The so-called unlawful infringement refers to an act that damages the state, public interests and the legitimate rights and interests of the person or others protected by law. Infringement stipulated by law has two characteristics: first, illegal infringement must be an act that harms society and has social harm; Second, unlawful infringement must be urgent. The description of "Li Si is about to kill Wang Wu" in the above-mentioned case shows that Li Si's unlawful infringement on Wang Wu is an act endangering society, which has the urgency of infringement and meets the conditions of justifiable defense.
(2) Time condition, that is, illegal infringement is going on.
The cause and condition of justifiable defense is the existence of unlawful infringement, but it is not that with unlawful infringement, justifiable defense can be carried out at any time. There is a time limit for justifiable defense, that is, justifiable defense can only be carried out in the process of illegal infringement. The so-called ongoing, refers to the illegal infringement is still in the process, there will be a need for legitimate defense.
1, illegal infringement has begun. Only after the unlawful infringement begins can we defend the wrongdoer properly, so the time when the unlawful infringement begins is also the time when the justifiable defense begins. Illegal infringement has begun to show that the illegal infringer begins to directly infringe, which directly threatens the rights and interests protected by law.
The illegal infringement is not over yet. Self-defense begins with unlawful infringement and ends with unlawful infringement. The fact that the unlawful infringement has not ended shows that the dangerous state formed by the unlawful infringement has not disappeared, the threat has not been ruled out, and self-defense needs to be implemented.
I hope the above content can help you. If in doubt, please consult a professional lawyer.
Legal basis:
Article 20 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) * * * In order to protect the national interests, the public, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from the ongoing unlawful infringement, and stop the unlawful infringement, which causes damage to the unlawful infringer, it belongs to self-defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
If justifiable defense obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes great damage, criminal responsibility shall be borne, but the punishment shall be mitigated or exempted.
Taking defensive actions against violent crimes such as assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc., which seriously endanger personal safety, and causing casualties of illegal infringers, is not excessive defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.