Interpretation of the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China to Abolish the Bad Habit of Consuming Wildlife Mindlessly

Jiwen Chang

doi:10.5565/rev/da.497

Abstract

espanolCon el objetivo de eliminar el riesgo de una potencial propagacion de enfermedades entre personas y fauna silvestre, y salvaguardar la seguridad de la salud publica de la sociedad, asi como mantener el equilibrio ecologico, el Comite Permanente del Congreso Nacional del Pueblo de China aprobo, en febrero de 2020, la decision de abolir el mal habito de consumir fauna silvestre irresponsablemente, que establece el alcance de la prohibicion, las sanciones, la importancia del ganado y las aves de corral comestibles, las condiciones especiales y las medidas de utilizacion no comestible de animales silvestres, etc. La “Decision” refleja una actitud legislativa practica y realista: no solo elimina los malos habitos, sino que tambien proporciona las condiciones especiales para la cria en cautividad, que salvaguardan la estabilidad economica. Se adopta el metodo de combinar la Lista Negra y la Lista Blanca para delimitar la barrera entre ilegal y legal. Se construye todo el conjunto de normas juridicas, que establecen las responsabilidades frente a conductas ilicitas, y que constituyen los “pilares” de la ley que entro en vigor. EnglishIn order to eliminate the risk of potential disease spreading between people and wildlife, and to safeguard public health security of the society, as well as to maintain the ecological balance, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China passed the decision to abolish the bad habit of consuming wildlife mindlessly in February 2020, which stipulated the scope of the fasting, measures of punishment, scope of edible livestock and poultry, and the special conditions and approval measures of non-edible utilization of wild animals, etc. The “Decision” reflects the practical and realistic legislative attitude: it not only eliminates the bad habits, but also provides the provisions of special conditions for captive breeding, which safeguard the basic stability of the economy. The method of combining Blacklist and Whitelist is adopted to delimit the boundary between illegal and legal. The whole chain of legal norms is constructed, which stipulated the applicable or suggested applicable legal liabilities for illegal acts and served as the “talons” of the law that brought it into play.

Highlights

In order to eliminate the risk of potential disease spreading between people and wildlife, and to safeguard public health security of the society, as well as to maintain the ecological balance, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China passed the decision to abolish the bad habit of consuming wildlife mindlessly in February 2020, which stipulated the scope of the fasting, measures of punishment, scope of edible livestock and poultry, and the special conditions and approval measures of non-edible utilization of wild animals, etc
Why did the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopt the “Decision” at this time? The main reason is that the existing provisions of the “Wildlife Protection Act” on the prohibition of the consumption of wild animals are insufficient, which need to be amended on the basis of the principle of biosafety risk prevention.[1]
According to the provisions of the criminal law and the judicial interpretation of the People's Supreme Court, criminal responsibility shall be borne for the consumption of wildlife and the purchase of wildlife and its products under special state protection for the purpose of consumption, and for the hunting of a certain number of animals with “three values”, which are wild animals with important scientific research, ecological protection and social value

Summary

Introduction

In order to eliminate the risk of potential disease spreading between people and wildlife, and to safeguard public health security of the society, as well as to maintain the ecological balance, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China passed the decision to abolish the bad habit of consuming wildlife mindlessly in February 2020, which stipulated the scope of the fasting, measures of punishment, scope of edible livestock and poultry, and the special conditions and approval measures of non-edible utilization of wild animals, etc. During the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China, on February 24th, 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress deliberated and adopted “The Decision on Comprehensively Banning the Illegal Wildlife Trade, Abolishing the Bad Habit of Eating Wildlife Mindlessly, and Effectively Protecting the Health and Safety of the People” (the “Decision”).

Results

Conclusion