Chapter Four. The Pursuit Of Criminal Justice

In these thirty years, China's criminal law system has experienced groundbreaking change and made constant progress toward realizing criminal justice. Modern criminal law systems include substantive criminal law, criminal procedure law, and other relevant elements of the legal system. Substantive criminal law contains regulations on the definition of crime, criminal liability, and criminal sanctions; it plays an essential role in the legal system. When compared to other areas of law, substantive criminal law has two distinctive characteristics. First, the spectrum of the social relationships regulated by substantive criminal law is the most extensive of any category of law. Second, the force of substantive criminal law is the most powerful of any legal category; substantive criminal law ensures the effective implementation of every other law and is the tool of last resort for protecting the government and the people from illegal activities. Keywords: China; criminal justice; criminal law; criminal liability; legal system; regulations; sanctions