Criminal law protection of scenic resources: a three-stage analysis framework.

The No. 147 guiding case of the Supreme People's Court set a precedent for the crime of intentionally destroying scenic spots and historic sites in Article 324 (2) of the Criminal Law to protect scenic resources. Its significance lies not only in the innovation of judgment thinking, but also in the reconfirmation of the criminal law protection of scenic resources. In order to further define the trial philosophy of guiding case No. 147, resolve the dilemmas in the judicial determination of crimes of intentionally destroying scenic spots and historic sites, and clarify the boundaries of power and rights in the field of ecological environment, administrative violations, and criminal crimes, this paper adopts the three-stage analysis framework of ' object - transgression - legal interest' to construct the paths of the criminal law protection of scenic resources. In terms of the definition of the objects involved, ' scenic resources' in the crime of intentionally destroying scenic spots and historic sites should be defined as the ecological landscape rather than the ecological scenic spots so as to maintain the coordination of criminal protection between natural reserves, national parks, and scenic spots. When identifying ' damaging behaviors,' we propose the concept of ' nested regulation theory' with ' destroying' scenic resources as the main standard, supplemented by ' value reduction' to clarify the boundary between illegal and criminal behaviors and to avoid excessive severity of criminal identification. In the restatement of legal interest value, the ' 1+X' model is adopted to summarize the legal interest value characteristics of scenic resources: ' 1' refers to the basic and original ecological legal interest characteristics of these resources; 'X' refers to the legal interest attributes of cultural relics contained in scenic resources as natural and humanistic heritage, which can be further divided into biological legal interest value, enlightening legal interest value, aesthetic legal interest value, and economic legal interest value. Different types of legal interest value are endowed with different meanings for the criminal identification of ' serious damages. ' The ' destruction' of ecological legal interests, biological legal interests, and scientific research value is the condition under which the criminal law initiates the protection of scenic resources; however, the 'value reduction' of popular science value and aesthetic legal interests is the condition under which the criminal law initiates the protection of scenic resources. The economic legal interests of scenic resources do not affect the judgment of criminal illegality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]