公罪와 私罪

Abstract

In Chinese traditional society, crime was divided into the public crime and private crime. This classification had been existed since Han era (漢代), and the Dang Code(唐律) clarified the division reflecting the legislations in the previous era. Subsequently, the principle and the way of criminal punishment concretely systemized during the Ming Dynasty. The major criteria of the classification between public crime and private crime is a subjective criminal motive, not an objective commission of criminal conduct. This indicates the source of both public crime and private crime is based on the subjective interpretation of the law. However, this standard of classification tended to cause the discrepancy between crime and actual punishment. After abolishment of the social hierarchy and accomplishment of the equality, the public crime which was sonderdelikt disappeared that all categories of crime started to be regarded as private crime. Therefore, the administrative law regulated the public crime, and the criminal law regulated the private crime.