The Distinction between Corporal Punishment and Justifiable Defense in School Punishment in China: An Analysis of a Case of Corporal Punishment

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to distinguish teachers’ justifiable defense behavior from corporal punishment in the specific practice of educational punishment. Not all the bad behaviors of primary and middle school students can be solved by civilized punishment that does not contain any physical force. On some specific occasions, it is objectively inevitable for teachers to implement disciplinary measures containing physical tangible force. According to the provisions of criminal law and civil law, anyone can carry out self-defense against bad behavior or illegal infringement committed by minor students. Primary and secondary schools bear the supplementary liability for failing to fulfill their management responsibilities for the illegal infringement among students on campus. The punishment for the illegal infringement of minor students is not only the due meaning of the education law, the teacher law and the compulsory education law, but also the inevitable requirement of the right of educational punishment. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish the punishment of physical tangible force in educational punishment from corporal punishment, and recognize the punishment of physical tangible force in a specific situation as a justifiable defense.