The criminal cases of illegal occupation of agricultural land by mining-related enterprises participated by the author generally show the following characteristics: first, the legitimacy of land use behavior, because mining-related enterprises first legally obtained mining rights, according to the provisions of the Mineral Resources Law, mining owners have the right to use land for prospecting and mining activities in accordance with the law, therefore, mining-related enterprises have the legitimacy of land use behavior; Second, due to the imperfection of the relevant provisions on the administrative examination and approval of land use, many mining enterprises have the problem of "difficult examination and approval of land use"; third, harmless, most mining enterprises, although they have not obtained the land use examination and approval procedures of the relevant administrative departments, they have compensated the land use rights holders and paid the relevant fees required by the land management departments in accordance with the requirements of the local government.
According to the requirements of the tolerance of the concept of modesty in criminal law, the illegal occupation of agricultural land by mining-related enterprises mentioned above should not be criminally dealt with and the relevant personnel should be investigated for criminal responsibility. The tolerance requirement of the criminal law, the kindness initiated by the criminal law, the reality of the regulation scope of the criminal law and the humanity of the regulation intensity of the criminal law. In the process of participating in the defense of the above-mentioned mining enterprises suspected of illegally occupying agricultural land, the author deeply felt that in view of such cases, the judicial organs showed great helplessness: because of the explicit provisions of the criminal law, the facts proved by the evidence do constitute a crime, so the relevant enterprises and personnel have to be investigated for criminal responsibility. The parties feel wronged, full of grievances and nowhere to say that mining enterprises not only bear tremendous economic pressure, but also face criminal responsibility investigation. The investigation of criminal responsibility for such crimes has seriously dampened the enthusiasm of mining enterprises and related personnel to develop the economy. At the same time, it also violates the requirement of kindness in the concept of modesty in criminal law.
Professor Chen Xingliang once cited a thought of the British jurist philosopher Jeremy Bentham: "if the evil of punishment exceeds the evil of crime, the legislator is to create greater pain rather than prevent it. It is to eliminate the lesser evil at the price of greater evil."
In view of the above situation, the author suggests that, in view of the illegal occupation of agricultural land by mining enterprises, first, from the legislative level, such acts should not be convicted in principle; second, non-prosecution or light punishment should be done as far as possible in the process of criminal responsibility investigation. such as the author participated in a mining enterprise illegal occupation of agricultural land crime case, the procuratorial organs listened to the author's opinion, the mining-related enterprises to take "compliance non-prosecution" treatment.
