China News Service, March 11. Recently, the work report of the Supreme People's Court showed that from 2021 to 2023, the People's Court acquitted 77 defendants for self-defense, and "Article 20" has been awakened.
What is "Article 20"?
Article 20 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates that any act taken to stop an unlawful infringement in order to protect the country, public interests, the personal, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing unlawful infringement shall be punished against the unlawful infringer. If the damage is caused, it is legitimate defense and will not bear criminal responsibility.
What should you pay attention to when exercising your right to self-defense?
Lawyer Yue Qishan from Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm said that the requirements for legitimate defense include cause conditions, time conditions, object conditions and limit conditions.
What we need to focus on are time conditions and limit conditions.
On the one hand, legitimate defense stops ongoing unlawful infringement. If the unlawful infringement is defended before it has begun, or the unlawful infringement is defended after it has ended, both are inappropriate defenses and do not constitute legitimate defense; on the other hand, , legitimate defense cannot obviously exceed the necessary limit and should not cause significant damage.
For example, if a thief commits pickpocketing on a bus, when we are performing self-defense, we should not use a kitchen knife to seriously injure or even kill him.
Of course, the original intention of the legitimate defense legislation is that the state gives people the right to fight back against illegal acts, defend others, and defend themselves. The legal determination of legitimate defense should not be too strict.
To judge whether the defensive behavior performed by the defender is necessary, we cannot judge from the perspective of hindsight, rational people or God. The imminent danger and realistic possibility of causing further damage must be considered. The defender should not be required to take actions that are basically equivalent to the unlawful infringement. Counterattack style and intensity.