Considered application of law encouraged to safeguard societal norms

The public expects and encourages acts of bravery and righteousness, and judicial authorities should grasp the essence of the legal concept of justifiable defense in practice to prevent illegal acts, experts said.

Xiao Yi, a criminal law professor at Capital Normal University, said that the subjective, causal, temporal, objective and defense limit conditions are all indispensable in determining and applying justifiable defense in practice.

She suggested that not only legal professionals but also the general public should fully understand the law. Justifiable defense not only allows citizens to fully exercise their rights when necessary but also helps to avoid unnecessary losses and negative impacts.

In the face of unlawful infringement, everyone has the right to defend themselves without the obligation to retreat or endure. Justifiable defense is a behavior affirmed and actively encouraged by the law. Whether the defender chooses to report to the police or retreat does not affect the recognition of their legitimate defense, she said.

"The promotion of social progress, the improvement of people's legal awareness, and the enhancement of law enforcement officers' legal literacy, case-handling abilities and sense of justice are important factors in pushing forward the full application of justifiable defense provisions," she said.

Wang Yong, deputy head of the Suzhou People's Procuratorate in Jiangsu province, said that in justifiable defense cases, the ability to collect and review evidence is fundamental, and judicial principles and technical details are crucial.

Defenders act in extremely tense and fearful situations, often reacting instinctively in a split second, making it difficult to recall the exact circumstances of the incident afterward. Therefore, it is generally difficult to collect effective verbal evidence, which requires judicial officers to improve their ability to collect objective evidence and draw an accurate conclusion, he said.

In recent years, objective evidence such as surveillance videos has become more widespread, creating a stronger ability to reconstruct facts, serving as the premise and foundation for the activation of justifiable defense in practice.

Theoretically, the public should be aware of their right to justifiable defense. In practice, most counterattacks are just instinctive reactions, and the defenders are often unclear about their intentions and how they acted in that instance. Therefore, judicial organs should conduct comprehensive analyses and judgments to make examination decisions, he said.

Some law enforcement officers are accustomed to observing cases from a retrospective and outsider's perspective, which makes it difficult to capture the hidden motives and subjective intentions of the parties involved, he said.

It is important to adopt a more empathetic approach and consider the entire context of the case to make a fair and just judgment, Wang said. Each case must be comprehensively judged based on the causes, processes and consistent behavior of the individuals involved.

Wang said that when dealing with cases involving injury, some investigators only focus on when the violence escalated, making it easy to conclude it as "mutual fighting". However, clarifying why the suspect committed the assault, who was at fault and who escalated the conflict is crucial in such cases. Viewing the entire timeline of the event, the overall relationship between the parties may change, leading to different conclusions.

"The law represents the most fundamental morality, but judicial conclusions can influence societal norms and values, even potentially reshaping societal value orientations," Wang said.

Judicial officers should not stick to convention and apply legal provisions stubbornly, he added.

Zhang Jianwei, a law professor from Tsinghua University, said that the public expects and encourages acts of bravery and righteousness. Legislation and the judiciary need to actively respond to the demands of society. Furthermore, what legislation and the judiciary encourage and suppress also plays a significant role in shaping social norms.

When criminal activities occur, the social defense mechanism may not always respond immediately, requiring immediate justifiable defense by the victim or intervention by a bystander, he said. If legitimate acts of justifiable defense and acts of bravery are wrongly subjected to criminal prosecution, including misjudging them as excessive defense, it would discourage righteous individuals from taking action when necessary.

Zheng noted that judicial authorities should interpret the logic of regulations based on legislative intent, correctly apply the justifiable defense system, prevent wrongful prosecution against those who defend themselves legally and guide citizens in properly exercising their justifiable defense rights.