On September 3, the Supreme People's court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the guiding opinions of the Supreme People's court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of public security on the application of the legitimate defense system according to law. The guiding opinions respectively stipulate the specific application of justifiable defense, excessive defense and special defense, and put forward ten rules:

1、 Accurately grasp the cause and condition of justifiable defense. The cause of justifiable defense is the existence of unlawful infringement.

Article 5 of the guiding opinions specifies the specific understanding of illegal infringement, which clearly states: "illegal infringement includes not only violations of the rights to life and health, but also violations of personal freedom, public and private property and other rights; it includes both criminal acts and illegal acts." "Illegal infringement includes not only illegal infringement against oneself, but also illegal infringement against the state, public interests or against others." "Defense may be exercised against unlawful infringements such as illegally restricting the personal freedom of another person or illegally invading another person's house."

2、 Accurately grasp the time conditions of justifiable defense. Justifiable defense must be aimed at the ongoing illegal infringement, that is, the illegal infringement has begun but not ended.

With regard to the criteria for judging the time conditions, Article 6 of the guiding opinions emphasizes that "as to whether the illegal infringement has started or ended, we should make a reasonable judgment according to law based on the situation the defender is in during the defense and in accordance with the general knowledge of the public, and should not demand the defender."

3、 Accurately grasp the object conditions of justifiable defense. Justifiable defense is "right or wrong", which must be carried out against the illegal infringer. However, the illegal infringer should not be narrowly understood as the person who directly commits the illegal infringement, but also includes the organizers, instigators and other people who jointly commit the illegal infringement on the scene.

In this regard, Article 7 of the guiding opinions has been clarified. In addition, Article 7 of the Guiding Opinions also stipulates: "if you know that the infringer is a person without criminal responsibility or a person with limited criminal responsibility, you should try to use other ways to avoid or stop the infringement; if there is no other way to avoid or stop the illegal infringement, or the illegal infringement seriously endangers your personal safety, you can fight back."

4、 Accurately grasp the intention conditions of justifiable defense. Legitimate defense must have legitimate defense intention.

Article 8 of the guiding opinions stipulates that "justifiable defense must be to protect the state, public interests, personal, property and other rights of oneself or others from unlawful infringement. Defense provocation that deliberately provokes the other party to infringe upon himself with words, behaviors and so on should not be recognized as a defense act."

5、 Accurately distinguish between defensive behavior and mutual fighting. Both justifiable defense and mutual fighting may cause damage to the other party, which are similar in appearance and easy to be confused.

In practice, some cases have the phenomenon of "making peace" and "hitting 50 big boards each". As long as the consequences of minor injury or above are caused to the other party, they will be treated as crimes respectively, blurring the boundary between "right" and "wrong", which should be corrected. Article 9 of the guiding opinions requires us to adhere to the principle of unity of subjectivity and objectivity, make comprehensive judgment, accurately grasp the subjective intention and nature of the actor, and accurately determine whether the relevant acts are justifiable defense or mutual fighting.

6、 Accurately distinguish the abuse of defense power from legitimate defense.

Article 10 of the guiding opinions requires to prevent the abuse of the right to defense from being recognized as a defensive act, "For a significantly minor illegal infringement, if the perpetrator directly uses a method sufficient to cause serious injury or death to stop it under identifiable circumstances, it shall not be recognized as a defensive act. If the illegal infringement is caused by the perpetrator's major fault, and the perpetrator intentionally uses a method sufficient to cause serious injury or death to fight back when he can use other means to avoid the infringement, it shall not be recognized as a defensive act.".

7、 Accurately grasp the identification conditions of excessive defense. Compared with justifiable defense, excessive defense only breaks through the limit conditions, that is, "obviously exceeding the necessary limit and causing major damage".

In order to unify the application of the law, Articles 11 to 13 of the guiding opinions specify that the determination of excessive defense should meet the two conditions of "obviously exceeding the necessary limit" and "causing significant damage", neither of which is indispensable; To judge whether it is "obviously beyond the necessary limit", it is necessary to make a judgment based on the situation in which the defender is defending and in combination with the general cognition of the public; "Causing major damage" means causing serious injury or death to the illegal infringer. If minor injury or the following damage is caused, it does not belong to major damage.

8、 Accurately grasp the penalty discretion of excessive defense. Criminal responsibility shall be borne for excessive defense, but the punishment shall be mitigated or exempted.

Article 14 of the guiding opinions requires "to comprehensively consider the circumstances of the case, especially the fault degree of the illegal infringer, the severity of the illegal infringement, and the defender's panic and tension in the face of the illegal infringement, so as to ensure that the penalty discretion is appropriate and fair".

9、 Accurately grasp the identification conditions of special defense.

Articles 15 to 17 of the guiding opinions define the specific meaning of "murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping and other violent crimes that seriously endanger personal safety" around the cause conditions of special defense. Article 16 stipulates that "in the process of committing an unlawful infringement, if there are violent criminal acts that seriously endanger personal safety, such as murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc., such as robbing guns, ammunition, explosives by means of violence or abducting and selling women and children by means of kidnapping, special defense may be implemented." If a person carries out special defense and causes injury or death to the unlawful infringer, he shall not be deemed to have been unduly defensive and shall not bear criminal responsibility.

10、 Accurately grasp the relationship between general defense and special defense.

Article 18 of the guiding opinions stipulates: "if a defense act that does not meet the conditions for the cause of special defense causes casualties to the illegal infringer, if it does not obviously exceed the necessary limit, it shall also be recognized as justifiable defense and shall not bear criminal responsibility."