Professor Zhang Mingkai, a leading figure in criminal law: Bitcoin belongs to property in criminal law

For a long time, cases involving encrypted assets such as Bitcoin have been difficult to file and handle. Whether it is a criminal case or a civil case, I believe everyone has a deep feeling for this.

Due to work reasons, whether the team of chain lawyers is accepting advice from readers and friends, or dealing with property cases involving Bitcoin, this feeling is especially strong, especially when dealing with judicial agencies in some underdeveloped regions. Today, I can't hide my joy when I see Professor Zhang Mingkai's views.

Regarding the nature of virtual assets such as Bitcoin in criminal law, Chain Law has written many articles before, and interested readers can review them.

Recently, Professor Zhang Mingkai, a leading figure in the field of criminal law and a benchmark figure, launched the course "Zhang Mingkai 100 Lectures on Criminal Law" in Get Online. It mentioned in the fourth lecture of the first unit of the course "Basic Issues of Criminal Law" "The doctrine of legality: Does virtual property belong to property in criminal law?" Bitcoin is property in criminal law.

According to this point of view, the theft of Bitcoin certainly constitutes the crime of theft. Defrauding Bitcoin, of course, constitutes a crime of fraud.

The authority of Professor Zhang Mingkai is beyond doubt. There is a post on Zhihu, the question is "How to evaluate Professor Zhang Mingkai?", the answers to the following posts are surprisingly consistent, everyone thinks that they are not qualified to evaluate Professor Zhang Mingkai.

For everyone who studies law, Professor Zhang Mingkai is no stranger. His unique "Criminal Law" textbook is a must-read textbook for every legal person studying criminal law. Professor Zhang Mingkai is full of peaches and plums. Whether it is the public security system, the procuratorate system, or the court system, there is no shortage of students. I believe that his views will have an impact on future legislation, and on the future handling of bitcoin-related crimes by the judiciary. big influence.

Although the author has had the opportunity to learn face-to-face with Professor Zhang Mingkai many times due to the needs of case handling, as described in this course, it is extremely rare to be able to learn criminal law from Mr. Zhang in the legal field. The following is just an excerpt from the author's lecture on virtual property. If you want to study the criminal law course more systematically, you can buy and learn it step by step.

Professor Zhang Mingkai first started the topic with the principle of legally prescribed crimes and punishments.

The principle of legally prescribed punishment for a crime is the iron rule of criminal law. Its classic expression is that there is no crime in the absence of express provisions of the law, and no punishment in the absence of express provisions of the law. That is to say, what is not expressly stipulated by the law is not a crime, and what is not expressly provided by the law is not subject to criminal punishment. This is a principle that must be observed. This principle is not only a criminal law principle, but also a constitutional principle.

The reason why the principle of legally prescribed punishment for a crime is the iron rule of criminal law is that it is rooted in the ideas of democracy and respect for human rights.

Democracy means that laws are enacted by the citizens themselves, and the criminal laws enacted by the legislature should reflect the demands of the citizens. The criminal law embodies the will of the people, and naturally protects the interests of the people. Improper expansion of the scope of punishment will infringe on the freedom of citizens.

The criminal law clearly stipulates crimes and corresponding punishments, so citizens can predict the nature of their behavior in advance according to the criminal law, and will not feel uneasy because they don’t know whether their behavior is a crime or whether they will be punished. This is the idea of ​​respecting human rights embodiment.

The course also mentions that respecting human rights requires prohibiting interpretation by analogy. However, the expanded interpretation is allowed by the criminal law. For the specific content, interested readers can go to the course.

Why does Professor Zhang Mingkai think that virtual property such as Bitcoin belongs to the property in the criminal law? His views are as follows:

He first believes that virtual property is either bought with money, such as Q coins, game coins, bitcoins, etc., or it is earned through labor and has property value. It has both objective exchange value and subjective use value. Moreover, virtual property plays an important role in people's lives. It can be said that most people cannot live without virtual property. That being the case, it is necessary to punish the illegal acquisition of other people's virtual property.

Secondly, the concept of "property" originally includes property and objects, so property and property interests can be included in the concept of "property".

my country's criminal law does not distinguish between property and property interests, but only uses the concept of "property". That being the case, it can be considered that property in our criminal law can include property and property interests in a narrow sense. Moreover, the extension of property must increase with the development of society. In the case of a large number of virtual properties, there is no reason to deny that virtual property is property.

Finally, now everyone is familiar with virtual assets such as Q coins, bitcoins, and game coins, and everyone fully accepts the concept of virtual assets. That being the case, interpreting virtual property as property will not exceed the possibility of national predictions, and no one will be surprised. Therefore, the theft of virtual property such as Q coins, bitcoins, and game coins is considered the crime of theft, which is also in line with the criminal law principled.