In real life, we often encounter various unexpected situations, and how to deal with these situations, especially those involving their own safety, often triggers people's thinking. Recently, a woman was robbed by a speeding car and killed the robber by her car, which attracted widespread attention. This incident not only makes us think about the legal boundaries of justifiable defense, but also triggers a deep reflection on China's existing justifiable defense system.
Let's review what happened. When a woman was about to drive out of the garage at 5 o'clock in the morning, there were two young people squatting at the door, they were holding drills, surrounding both sides of the woman's car, the woman in the car was very panicked, and shouted for help, the young man smashed the car window, snatched the bag placed in the passenger seat, the bag contained 80,000 yuan in cash and other documents, and rode a motorcycle to escape, because the garage road is straight, the woman drove up to recover the property, but unfortunately hit the motorcycle, three robbers were knocked away, one of them died on the spot. In this case, did her actions constitute justifiable self-defense?
From a legal point of view, article 20 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that: "Any person who takes measures to stop the infringement in order to protect the public interest of the state or the personal rights of himself or others from ongoing illegal infringement shall not bear criminal liability if the infringer causes damage." "That's the definition of justifiable defence. The constituent elements of justifiable defense include: the unlawful encroachment is ongoing; The act of defence is to stop the unlawful offense; The level of defensive conduct is commensurate with that of unlawful aggression.
In this case, the woman's conduct clearly satisfies the constituent element of legitimate defence. She was faced with an ongoing illegal assault – a speeding car robbery, and she drove into the robber to stop it. Although the result resulted in the death of the robber, from a legal point of view, her actions did not require criminal responsibility, and the subsequent court judgment also found that it was justified defense.
The social impact of this incident goes far beyond the legal level. Public discussion of justifiable self-defense intensified, with many expressing understanding and support for the woman's actions, believing that she acted in self-defense when she could not protect herself in any other way. At the same time, there are concerns about whether such behavior will be abused, resulting in innocent harm.
On this issue, my view is that the existence of the law is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, and when faced with illegal infringement, we have the right and obligation to defend ourselves. However, justifiable defence does not imply the unlimited use of violence, and the act of defence must be commensurate with the unlawful offense and not exceed the necessary limit.
Although the incident of a woman being robbed by a speeding car and driving into and killing a robber constitutes legitimate defense in law, the deep-seated problem behind it -- how to correctly understand and apply the justifiable defense system -- is still worthy of our deep consideration. We need to further improve and clarify the legal provisions on legitimate defense, both to protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and to prevent them from being abused.