Regulatory Measures Against “Drunk Driving”: China’s Experience

Abstract

The subject of this research includes legal regulations imposed by the Chinese government to combat alcohol (drug-)-impaired driving, and the most high-profile cases containing the elements of the offence at hand are listed as well. The author analyzes the current legislation of the People’s Republic of China that sets out criminal, administrative and disciplinary liability for “drunk drivers”. The research also includes provisions of the PRC Criminal Code, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Road Traffic Safety, several regulatory instruments adopted by various national authorities, the PRC’s Supreme People’s Court’s elucidation on applying the existing legal regulations in the analyzed sphere. Special attention is paid to the statistical data that confirm the high degree of public danger of the offence at hand, as well as its influence on the overall criminal situation in the country. The conducted research is based on the comparative law methodology; a systematic approach, technical, historical and statistical methods are used to achieve objectives stated in the article. The academic novelty of the research is that comprehensive analysis of the Chinese government’s fight against “drink driving” (its regulatory aspect) has been carried out for the first time in the Russian Jurisprudence and Chinese studies. It is worth mentioning that Chinese law-makers have chosen to include into the Criminal Law a provision criminalizing the alcohol-(drug-) impaired driving regardless of the consequences. This step was preceded by a considerable increase in the number of road accidents caused by drunk drivers. Should two or more people die, Chinese courts impose harsh criminal liability measures on the perpetrator, up to life imprisonment or, in certain cases, even to capital punishment. Moreover, the “drunk driver” is to be dismissed from the civil service and expelled from the ruling party, if he was convicted of the offence at hand. Measures imposed by Chinese law-makers resulted in drastic decrease in the number of road accidents caused by drunk drivers, as well as in considerable decrease in the number of people killed on the Chinese roads.