A comparative study of the legal evolution and cognate offences of picking quarrels and provoking trouble

Setsen(yifei) K.(xiao) (University of Trento)

Abstract

In recent years, the discussion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble has become
increasingly close in Chinese society and has attracted the attention of legal scholars and deputies
to the National People's Congress (NPC). Since 1997, when picking quarrels and provoking trouble
were criminalised in mainland China, they have been regulated and improved by the Amendment
(VIII) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and related judicial interpretations.
However, the criminal law of picking quarrels and provoking trouble is still ambiguous and openended, easily blurring the boundaries with other crimes, which has led to concerns in the academic
and social communities that it has become a new "pocket crime". Therefore, it is important to
study, from a legal history perspective, other social control laws that are cognate with the current
picking quarrels and provoking trouble in mainland China at different periods and legal systems.
It is important to reveal their legal evolution, social impact and the path of rule of law construction.
This paper adopts an empirical and comparative approach to analyse the legal evolution of
picking quarrels and provoking trouble, starting from its legislative origins and background. At the
same time, it focuses on the most controversial issue of picking quarrels and provoking trouble -
its survival or abolition - and analyses it.

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