Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2013

Value Judgment and the Knowledge Transformation of Chinese Criminal Jurisprudence

(Abstract)

Zhou Guangquan

The history of European continental criminal jurisprudence reveals the extreme importance of value judgment. The four elements theory of plane-shaped criminal constitution in Chinese criminal jurisprudence needs to rebuild a hierarchical criminal system so as to make distinction between factual judgment and value judgment, and between illegality judgment and liability judgment. To promote the specific knowledge transformation of Chinese criminal jurisprudence under the guidance of value-judgment methodology, it is far from being enough to recognize the de facto conditions and relations of an act and its outcome; it is also important to make an objective liability fixation judgment on “whose fault” has caused the occurrence of the outcome. We should examine in depth the accountability concept and link the theory of crime with the theory of criminal punishment with value judgment. We should also develop a theorem that distinguishes principal offense from the offense of duty. In applying the method of value judgment, we should identify the “normative value judgment” as a standard in criminal law, and rationally define the limits of value judgment in criminal law.