Philosophical Comments on the Excessive Use of Criminal Law for the Social Governance

Abstract

The justification and legitimacy for the state power is to serve and protect the civil rights and freedoms from harm. Any punishment should be justified in the state under rule of law. Excessive use of criminal law is abnormal during the governance of society, which lies not only in legislative and judicial activities, but also in the minds of the people. Excessive use of criminal law will arouse high risks for the governance of the society, such as endanger the normal society structure and cause harm to the human rights and freedoms, disproportionately distribute judicial resources, weaken the identification to the criminal law, as well as discourage social development and economic innovation. To tackle with the problem, it is crucial to establish the mechanism how criminal law participates in social governance. Without any doubt, Criminal law should make response to the needs of society and criminal policy, but during which the criminal law must stick to its own attributes and any excessive response must be forbidden. The idea of minimizing the use of criminal law should be fully advocated. There is no reason to change the fundamental position of criminal law ever established in the state of the rule of law.