Guideline on drunken driving a welcome move
Judicial explanation makes law clearer
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Wang Lin, director of litigation law faculty, Law School of Hainan University |
To be precise, even though the eighth amendment to the Criminal Law identifies drunken driving as a crime, it does not stipulate that all drunken driving cases be determined as crimes. The pilot guideline as such, has no conflict with the existing law.
The public should therefore pay attention to the details in the guideline. For example, the guideline says: "If the circumstances are obviously minor, causing no serious harm, conviction and punishment should be avoided; if the circumstances are minor, criminal punishment could be avoided." While the guideline does not clarify what is the exact difference between "obviously minor" and "minor" circumstances, the function of judicial explanations is to make the law more practical, for instance, by giving judges a precise reference point to base their judgments on, instead of empowering them to use a wide range of templates to determine the circumstances.
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