Don't know the Law Can Exemption from Criminal Responsibility?——Construction of a Reliance-Protection-Oriented Paradigm for the Theory of Consciousness of Illegality

The judicial application dilemma of the theory of consciousness of illegality lies in the fact that China's Criminal Law does not explicitly stipulate that consciousness of illegality is an element of crime,and there is no specific operational standard in judicial practice regarding how consciousness of illegality and its possibility affect the establishment of intent and negligence.It must be recognized that the incorporation of the theory of consciousness of illegality into the criminal law system is a necessary measure to protect the public's trust in legal norms and even in their freedom of action,as well as an inevitable demand of modern society for a modern criminal law.Moreover,the theory of consciousness of illegality takes the protection of citizens' reliance in their freedom of action as its theoretical foundation and focuses on safeguarding such trust as its primary content.Therefore,it is feasible to explore the theory of consciousness of illegality from the standpoint of reliance protection.From the perspective of criminal policy based on reliance protection,the theory of consciousness of illegality must be appropriately positioned within China's autonomous criminal law knowledge system.In China's Criminal Law,consciousness of illegality serves as a common element for both intent and negligence,which can be derived from the normative basis in the provisions on intent and negligence in the Criminal Law and is also reasonable within the framework of the criminal theory system.Statutory offenses can be categorized into five types based on whether the subject is a layperson or a professional,and whether the subjective element is intent,negligence,or both.For each of these five categories,specific criteria can be proposed to determine how the degree of consciousness of illegality and its possibility affects the establishment of intent and negligence.This approach will facilitate the construction of a theoretical paradigm of consciousness of illegality that closely aligns with the developmental needs of modern Chinese society and the stipulations of China's Criminal Law.