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Eleventh Amendment to China’s Criminal Law Passed - China Legal News

Sun, 24 Jan 2021
Categories: China Legal Trends

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The Eleventh Amendment to the PRC Criminal Law will come into effect on 1 Mar. 2021.

The Eleventh Amendment to the PRC Criminal Law, passed by the 24th meeting of the 13th Standing Committee of National People’s Congress on Dec. 26, 2020, will come into effect on 1 Mar., 2021.

This amendment mainly focuses on the governance and protection of the Criminal Law in such fields as maintaining the life and work safety of the people, financial market order, intellectual property rights, ecological environment, and public health safety relating to epidemic prevention and control.

Article 1 of the Eleventh Amendment to the Criminal Law specifies that under certain circumstances, the statutory minimum age for criminal liability shall be lowered separately under special procedures. It clarifies that where a person who has reached the age of 12 but not 14 commits the crime of intentional homicide or intentional injury, causes death to another person or causes serious injury to another person by particularly cruel means, leading severe disability to another person, and the circumstance is serious, he/she shall assume criminal liability provided that the prosecution is approved by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. 

Contributors: Yanru Chen 陈彦茹

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