As a social and legal film, the box office and attention of the movie "Article 20" can break out of the encirclement from many relaxed and peaceful comedies in the Spring Festival, which fully reflects the audience's concern for the rule of law in society and their desire for legal knowledge. After the release of the movie, film reviews blossomed all over the network, and a number of prototype cases once again appeared on the hot search, and different social groups such as judicial organs, experts and scholars, and news ** discussed and analyzed the legal, moral, ethical, logical, social, emotional, and judicial practice issues related to "legitimate defense" from their own perspectives. Article 20 of the Criminal Law has become the most familiar legal provision for many people, and we deeply feel the positive influence of popular law popularization brought by popular movies and hot search cases. In judicial practice, the difficulties and controversies in the handling of relevant cases are more concentrated at the level of fact determination, and there is not much room for discussion in the legal provisions themselves. This also explains the fact that in the main case of the movie, the prosecution spends a lot of energy to search for key evidence and witnesses. It is also for this reason that the storyline shown in this film mainly revolves around the work of the procuratorial organs and public security organs, focusing on the review and prosecution stage, and rarely mentioning the work of the court in the trial stage. But we also cherish this opportunity to popularize the law. 
Given that the reviews and analyses of the movie on the Internet have been relatively comprehensive and in-depth. Today, we do not make film reviews, do not pick out the application of law, nor do we argue the legal basis, but mainly discuss one issue in combination with the plot of the movie:What exactly does Article 20 of the Criminal Law protect? Below, we unfold through three lines from the movie.
1. "I don't believe in the law of the land without heavenly principles, nor do I believe in the principles of heaven without human feelings."
In recent years, many popular cases on the Internet have been about legitimate defense. For example, "Yu Huan's murder case of humiliating his mother", "Kunshan Yu Haiming's anti-homicide case", "Fujian Zhao Yong case", "Laiyuan anti-homicide case" and so on. In specific cases, some experts said that "it will not be clear in a few decades" regarding the distinction between legitimate defense and excessive defense, intentional injury, mutual assault, and other issues! So why is justifiable defense so easy to become the focus of debate among the general public? Luo Xiang said"The desire for fairness and justice is a factory setting of human beings, it does not need to be indoctrinated, it only needs to be activated",This may be one answer.
If law is a highly specialized discipline, the general public does not have a grasp of the law, jurisprudence and professional knowledge. However, the masses of the peopleA simple view of right and wrongis innate, as director Zhang Yimou said"Chinese nature has a simple understanding of fairness and justice." Therefore, when faced with illegal infringement or even violent crimes, we naturally believe that the rights and interests of ourselves, others, and the public should be protected, and we have the right to stop the infringement and remedy the infringed rights and interests.
It has been said that the essence of justifiable defense is "right versus wrong". In social life, each of us may encounter "unjust" infringements, and although private remedies are not allowed in any legal environment, Article 20 of the Criminal Law gives us the legitimacy and legitimacy to resist infringements under certain circumstances. From this point of view, it protects:"Positive".Confrontation"Not right".right, yesThe most simple feeling of fairness and justice in the hearts of the peopleThis feeling is precisely the importance of the credibility of the rule of law and the sense of social security**.
2. "The law cannot yield to the lawless."
In 1997, the Criminal Law made major adjustments to Article 20, one is to relax the limits of legitimate defense, and the other is to add a special defense system. It is to encourage righteousness and courage, promote the righteousness of society, and protect the confidence of justice.
As a rational social person, we may weigh it when we make a certain behavior, why should we act bravely? What do we gain by risking legal or even personal harm to help others?
In fact, the moment we really stepped forward, we didn't think much about it at all, and it even seemed like an instinctive reaction. Because for thousands of years, seeing righteousness and courage have been the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, and the ancient way of enthusiasm has long been engraved in the spiritual genes of the Chinese, we are born with chivalrous courage, and we always believe that evil does not prevail over righteousness.
As for what will be gained, in addition to social affirmation and a sense of value, what is more important is a sense of social security. Each of us may be the weakest person in the relative relationship, and when we encounter illegal infringement that is difficult for us to resist, especially in the situation of urgency, the only thing that can protect us at the first time before the social rule of law force may be the "help when the road is uneven". Only when the environment in which we live is full of righteousness will social justice block danger and harm for us in times of need.
You can't chill the hearts of those who help others, and you can't let heroes shed blood and tears. Only by activating the sleeping Article 20 will everyone dare to release the righteousness in their hearts.
3. "All the right things have a price, but you can't stop doing them because they have a price."
Since the implementation of the Criminal Law in 1997, there have been problems of excessive and even serious misconduct in the application of the justifiable defense system by the judicial organs. The concept and environment of "people die are great" and "people who die will be taken care of" often have an impact and pressure on the case-handling personnel, which is also reflected in the movie.
As a case-handling officer of the judicial adjudication organ, we can fully empathize with Han Ming, the prosecutor in the movie, at that time, he violated prior precedents, lacked the basis for the application of law, was under the pressure of being responsible for the case for life, and risked being coerced by **, how difficult it was to make a judicial decision that followed the justice of the heart. We can feel the entanglement and suffering, and we can feel the enthusiasm and pride.
Today, Article 20 represents not only the Criminal Law itself, but also the Guiding Opinions on the Lawful Application of the Justified Defense System, its judicial interpretations, guiding cases, and a series of other laws and regulations. The continuous improvement of relevant legal rules and applicable guidelines has allowed case-handling personnelSummoning the courage of the judiciary and activating the dormant Article 20.
Special attention needs to be paid to prevent the abuse of the right to defenceWe need to improve the status quo of "timidity" in the application of legitimate defensePrevent overcorrection and go to the other extreme. Illegal and criminal acts that are actually unlawful offenses in the name of defense should be resolutely avoided from being found to be legitimate defense or excessive defense. Where although defensive in nature, defensive conduct clearly exceeds the necessary limit and causes major harm, it shall be found to be excessive defense in accordance with law. As mentioned earlier, private relief is not allowed in principle in a society governed by the rule of law, otherwise countering violence with violence will prevail, and whoever has the biggest fist will have the final say, which will be an even more terrible chaotic situation. Because the world is not black and white or only right and wrong"Legitimate".It is the two words that are at the heart of Article 20. If, if we take the other side of the role, when we have an argument with others, or even be tempted to inflict aggression on the other party (perhaps the other party's strength is enough to reasonably resist the infringement), but if the law allows for the infinite expansion of "defensive" behavior, people will often be infinitely harmed, and the primitive jungle rules will replace the legal system. How scary is that? To be more specific, if the right of defense is wantonly expanded and abused, and you don't want to fight or want to run away when you fight with others, the other party can still legally chase and kill you! So,Acts of "self-defense" that are not in time and acts of defense that exceed the necessary limits shall be subject to legal responsibility. Finally, I would like to thank this film for giving us the opportunity to think deeply about legal issues, allowing us to see from the film countless figures on the road of the rule of law, and let us understand that Article 20 protects the righteousness, justice and righteousness in everyone's heart. Link to the law:
Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 20: [Justifiable Defense] Where conduct taken to stop unlawful infringement is taken in order to protect the state, the public interest, or the person, property, or other rights of oneself or others from ongoing unlawful infringement, and causes harm to the unlawful offender, it is justified defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
Where legitimate defense clearly exceeds the necessary limit and causes major harm, criminal responsibility shall be borne, but punishment shall be commuted or waived.
Anyone who takes defensive action against an ongoing crime, homicide, robbery, kidnapping, or other violent crime that seriously endangers personal safety, causing an unlawful offense, is not considered to be in excessive defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
*: Henan Provincial High People's Court.
Release: Center for Integrity and Rule of Law.
Review: Editorial Department of Integrity and Rule of Law.
Editor: Qing Gardenia.