On February 26th, 2025, the 11th lecture series of “Criminal Case Thinking and Defense” of the Criminal Department of King&Capital Law Firm was successfully held, and the theme of this seminar was “Effective Defense of Criminal Cases Involving Food, Drugs and Environment”.

Activity Scene

This activity was presented by Mr. Zhang Sijia of King&Capital, with Prof. Cai Yuanpei of China University of Political Science and Law and Mr. Tang Jianbin, senior partner of King&Capital, as speakers. The purpose of this event is to share and discuss the experience and skills in the defense of food, drug and environmental criminal cases. The event was hosted by Mr. Gao Yumeng.

Gao Yumeng

Mr. Zhang Sijia started from the perspective of “criminal integration”, combined with the provisions of Article 13 of the Criminal Law “proviso” and typical cases, and proposed that the defense of food, drug and environmental cases need to break through from the dimensions of substantive law and evidence law. At the same time, combined with the practice experience, communication report on the effective defense of criminal cases involving food, drug and environmental thinking.

First of all, at the substantive level, we should adhere to the modesty of criminal law, and effectively prevent improper incrimination. Criminal defense practice, in particular, we should pay attention to the overall evaluation of the social harm of the act, dare to, good use of “Criminal Law” Article 13 “proviso” provisions as a criminal defense of the entry point to “proviso” provisions of the judicialization of the law out of crime. Through the overall evaluation of social harm, we distinguish between administrative violations and criminal offenses to avoid mechanical justice.

Zhang Sijia

Ms. Zhang Sijia analyzed the concrete thinking at the entity level with specific cases and regulations, pointing out that in addition to the good use of the provisions of the proviso, it is also necessary to pay attention to the determination of the antecedent unlawfulness and adhere to the substantive evaluation of the unlawfulness, and shared her insights on the topic of human health as the core of the standards for judging the criminal unlawfulness of food and drug crimes stipulated in the legislation.

With regard to the crime of polluting the environment, Ms. Zhang Sijia believes that it is necessary to pay attention to the boundaries of the judicial determination of the “disposal behavior”, and to distinguish between the legal interests infringed by the “discharge” and the “internal treatment”. Combined with the “case of a workshop discharging mercury-containing wastewater”, Mr. Zhang Sijia demonstrated how to dismantle the prosecution's evidence chain through the hidden argument of “seepage pit discharge”, cross-pollution defense of pollutant sources, and hazardous consequences of failing to meet the standard from multiple angles, and finally pushed the Procuratorate to make the decision of not prosecuting the case. Prosecution decision.

From the methodology of criminal defense, Mr. Zhang Sijia discussed the complexity of food, drug and environmental cases at the entity level, and then shared that at the level of evidence, it is necessary to strengthen the defense of evidential capacity and probative power. For example, in the examination of “hazardous waste property identification” and “pollutant test report”, it is necessary to pay attention to the source of test materials, qualification of identification and application of standards. At the same time, the expert support person system should be used to defend professional issues (e.g., the judgment of danger that is “sufficient to endanger human health”).

Tang Jianbin

In the talk session, Mr. Tang Jianbin shared the legal characterization and defense strategy of drug-related food products brought by netroots. Taking the difficult issues of food and drug crimes as the theme, he combined the recent hot cases of netroots weight loss food products, “Little Pink Bean” and “Magic Bean” as the starting point, and discussed the crime of illegal production and sale of poisonous and harmful food products. Illegal production, sales of toxic and harmful food crime with the participants for in-depth discussion. Tang Jianbin emphasized that the defense should pay attention to the evidence attributes of “administrative opinion”, which must be based on expert opinion and comply with procedural legality.

He said that lawyers should build “not knowing” evidence chain when defending, such as the perpetrator's own use of the product, the reasonableness of the price, the review of the purchase channel, etc., and to promote the convergence of the criminal line, through the distinction between administrative illegality and criminal harm, and strive for the non-prosecution or lenient sentence.

Cai Yuanpei

Prof. Cai Yuanpei shared in-depth information on the three core issues of evidence cross-examination in food, drug and environmental cases.

On the part of presumption and rebuttal of subjective knowledge, he said that in judicial practice, subjective knowledge can be presumed through objective behaviors, such as professional experience, price abnormality, and failure to fulfill the duty of inspection. The defense needs to reverse construction “not knowing” evidence, such as the perpetrator's own cognitive ability, proof of the legal source of the product.

Regarding the key points of the test report, he believes that attention should be paid to the legality of the seizure procedure, the application of testing standards and the representativeness of the batch. Among them, for the testing of “new substances”, it is necessary to examine the qualification of the appraisal organization and the scientificity of the testing method.

Prof. Cai proposed that the rules of evidence in food, drug and environmental cases need to be further improved to promote the application of the “authenticity system” in the chain of custody of samples, so as to avoid miscarriages of justice due to procedural flaws.

At the end of the event, the attorneys discussed the theme of the event.

Yang Dakang, a criminal consultant, pointed out from the perspective of the media that criminal defense needs to break the “information barriers”, and young lawyers should focus on food, drug and environmental segments to achieve differentiated competition through specialization. He took the net red weight loss product “small powder beans” as an example, humorously reminding lawyers: “legal risks and product effects are as worthy of vigilance, professional defense is to guard the rights and interests of the parties, but also to guard the bottom line of public health.”

Mr. Zhu Yonghui, Director of King&Capital Law Firm, affirmed the success of the event and pointed out that “the defense of food and drug crimes requires a balance between emotion and rationality. Mr. Zhu believes that as the public, we expect to punish the crime; as lawyers, we should ensure that the fight is accurate according to the law. He said that the role of lawyers is to promote the fair implementation of the law through picking problems and checking loopholes, while the food and drug field is highly specialized, lawyers need to study the identification of drugs, the application of the law and other complex issues. The series of activities of King&Capital Food and Drug Center not only promotes professional exchanges, but also pushes the case-handling authorities to fight crimes more precisely, and ultimately achieve food and drug safety, “which is the significance of our work.”

The meeting ended with applause.

Follow-up activities:

The series of activities of “Criminal Defense” is a column specially set up by the Criminal Department of King&Capital Law Firm to strengthen internal communication, improve the practical ability of lawyers in criminal defense, and enhance the influence of the firm's criminal defense brand. The column aims to promote the King&Capital head office and branch offices, the firm and outside the counterparts, experts and scholars, the exchange and cooperation between the departments within the firm. The “Criminal Defense Talk” activity will be held once a month, and the next activity will continue to invite professionals to share and discuss.