On 29th November, Chen Hongbing, professor and doctoral supervisor of Southeast University School of Law, was invited by Tianjin Hongqiao District Lawyers' Committee to give a lecture on the theme of “How to Conduct Effective Substantive Defences” and the book launch of “A Precise Explanation of the Crimes Against Public Security and a Selection of Hundreds of Cases”, as well as the third issue of the Jinglin Tianjin Criminal Defence Forum. The lecture was hosted by Shanghai Jinglin (Tianjin) Law Firm, which gathered many lawyers and industry colleagues who love to learn and pursue knowledge, and the scene was warmly responded to with a full house.

The lecture was divided into two sessions, the morning session began at 9:00. Professor Chen Hongbing firstly introduced some of his previously published works to everyone, as well as the subsequent publication plan. Then, from the perspective of a senior scholar in the field of jurisprudence, Professor Chen Hongbing, with his rigorous attitude and profound academic accumulation, made a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of how to carry out effective substantive defence. Professor Chen pointed out that the purpose of criminal law is to protect the interests of the law, and the interests of the law in the final analysis is to protect the rights and interests of citizens' person and property. Therefore, combining the legislative purpose of criminal law and defence work is a very clever way of defence, which can explain the legislative purpose of a certain law to the judicial staff, so as to accurately qualify the suspect's behaviour.

The afternoon lecture started at 1:30, Professor Chen focused on the topics of ‘Compatibility of crime and punishment’, ‘Determination of the form of responsibility’, ‘Distinguishing between preparatory acts and execution acts’ and so on. First of all, Professor Chen pointed out that the principle of appropriateness of crime and punishment exists in the current judicial practice in the slogan of ‘heavy punishment for serious crimes and light punishment for less serious crimes’, and the law enforcers still change the offences arbitrarily for the sake of so-called fairness of sentencing. Professor Chen also highlighted the principle of modesty in criminal law, and called on judicial and legal workers to determine more rationally and accurately the appropriate penalties in terms of the degree of harm of the act and the danger of the person.

After the lecture, the guests expressed that Professor Chen's cutting-edge theories broke their understanding of traditional criminal law, and actively participated in Professor Chen's book signing activities. The lecture was a complete success!