Criminal Law Private School (Boku)

Name: Criminal Law Private School (Boku)
ISBN: 9787301243770

Zhang MingkaiPeking University Press · ChinaAug 2025

4.6

Word count: 336K words
Chapters: 17
ISBN: 9787301243770

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Summary

When teaching students, Professor Zhang Mingkai would select difficult criminal law cases every weekend for discussion, using case analysis to train students' ability to analyze and solve problems. This book is a collection of verbatim records from Professor Zhang Mingkai's "weekend criminal law discussion sessions" with students in recent years. Presented in dialogue form, the book faithfully recreates the scene of the criminal law discussions. Reading it is like sitting in on Professor Zhang's discussions with students, learning criminal law alongside him and acquiring the skill of dissecting and handling difficult cases with the precision of a master butcher. Most of the selected cases are difficult ones that frequently trouble those in the criminal justice field, and they are of considerable reference value to legal practitioners as well.

Editor's review

The value of this book lies not in offering ready-made conclusions about criminal law, but in recreating a scene of legal thinking training. Through weekend discussion sessions, Professor Zhang Mingkai conducts dialogues around difficult cases commonly encountered in criminal justice, allowing readers to clearly see the complete chain of reasoning—from extracting facts and identifying issues to applying norms and weighing viewpoints. The advantage of the dialogue form is that it preserves the hesitation, questioning, and revision of thought, bringing readers closer to the actual judgment process in practice than textbook-style monologues. The cases are mostly types that provoke significant controversy in practice, with repeated exercises on difficult points in general criminal law such as causation, determination of intent, and forms of complicity, making the book suitable as a bridge from knowledge memorization to case analysis in criminal law study. Readers need not aim to finish it in one sitting; they can pick a case, think it through independently first, and then compare their reasoning with the discussion. For those preparing for the legal qualification exam, criminal law graduate entrance exams, or newcomers to criminal practice, this book helps build "problem awareness" and "argumentation habits" rather than merely memorizing the elements of a particular offense.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Undergraduate and graduate students in criminal law who need training in case analysis methods
Candidates preparing for the legal qualification exam or criminal law graduate entrance exams who wish to improve case analysis skills
Criminal justice practitioners seeking reference on argumentation approaches to difficult cases
Self-learners with a strong interest in criminal law interpretation and case reasoning

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners with no criminal law background who are not yet familiar with basic offenses and the elements of crime
Practitioners seeking concise statutory explanations or a quick-reference handbook
Readers who prefer systematic textbook-style knowledge frameworks and are not comfortable with the jumping narrative of dialogue form

Reading tips

Read the case description first, write down your preliminary judgment and reasons, then enter the dialogue section to compare and revise
Select cases by topics in general and specific parts of criminal law, reading them alongside textbook chapters
Keep a notebook recording the issues, divergent views, and argumentative reasons for each case, and review regularly
Do not rush; read one or two cases closely each time and try to retell the reasoning process

About the publisher

Peking University Press China · Founded in 1979

Peking University Press is a comprehensive university press whose publishing areas cover classical literature, popular science, social culture, world history, Western philosophy, and culture. Its catalogue contains 6,031 titles, with representative books including A Dream of Red Mansions, Relativity: The Special and General Theory (15th Edition) (with Einstein's classic papers on unified field theory and other topics), Elements, Conics, The Aristocratic Families of the Eastern Jin, The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume I), The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume II), and The Origin of Continents and Oceans. Representative authors include Cao Xueqin, Zhou Ruchang, Albert Einstein, Euclid, Apollonius, Tian Yuqing, Schelling, and Xian Gang. The press has developed distinctive strengths in classical Chinese literature and in the translation of Western philosophical classics, while also covering scientific classics and social and cultural studies. As public information is limited, this description is based only on the books in the catalogue and offers no further extrapolation.

版权信息
说明
第一堂实质解释论与形式解释论
第二堂行为无价值与结果无价值
第三堂因果关系与客观归责
第四堂正当防卫与紧急避险
第五堂犯罪中止与犯罪未遂
第六堂正犯与共犯
第七堂法条竞合与想象竞合
第八堂量刑制度与量刑情节
第九堂危害公共安全罪
第十堂破坏社会主义市场经济罪
第十一堂侵犯公民人身权利、民主权利罪
第十二堂侵犯财产罪
第十三堂妨害社会管理秩序罪
第十四堂贪污贿赂罪
第十五堂渎职罪

FAQ

Can I understand this book without a criminal law background?

You can read it, but the gains will be limited. The book discusses difficult cases and assumes readers already grasp basic concepts such as the elements of crime, complicity, and causation. If you have no foundation at all, it is advisable to first read through the general part of a criminal law textbook, then select cases related to the chapters you have studied; understanding will be much smoother.

Doesn't the dialogue form make the book loose and lacking in system?

The dialogue form is indeed less systematic than a textbook, but the discussions revolve around specific issues, and each case has clear lines of questioning and argumentation. Readers can categorize the cases by theme themselves and connect similar problems scattered across different cases, which actually makes it easier to see how criminal law interpretation methods are applied in practice.

Is this book helpful for the legal qualification exam or graduate entrance exams?

It is helpful, but its purpose is thinking training rather than quick exam preparation. The cases mostly involve practical controversies and can sharpen the ability to identify issues and construct arguments, which aligns with the requirements of the subjective section of the legal qualification exam and case analysis questions in graduate entrance exams. It is best used alongside exam syllabi and past papers; not every viewpoint in the book should be treated as a standard answer.

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About the author

Zhang Mingkai Author · Chinese · 1959

Zhang Mingkai, born in July 1959 in Xiantao, Hubei, is a prominent Chinese criminal law scholar. He is currently a senior professor in the humanities at Tsinghua University and a doctoral supervisor. He graduated from Hubei College of Finance and Economics (now Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) in 1982, and has been a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo and a senior visiting scholar at the University of Bonn. He has published more than 30 monographs and over 400 articles. Among the nine works held in the collection are theoretical monographs such as The Expansion of Criminal Law Maxims (Third Edition), The System of Crime Composition and Elements of Constitutive Requirements, Liability Punishment and Preventive Punishment, and Legality of Crime and Punishment and Interpretation of Criminal Law, as well as the Criminal Law Private School series, which explains difficult issues in criminal law in dialogue form. Most of these works fall under law and exam preparation categories, combining systematic exposition with readability, and have had a broad influence among criminal law scholars and legal learners.