The Chinese Solution for the Reverse Connection between Criminal and Administrative Enforcement of Minor Crimes-Taking the Governance of “Excluding from Crime and Imposing Administrative Penalty” for Drunk Driving as an Entry Point

In 2023, the “Opinions on Handling Criminal Cases of Drunk and Dangerous Driving” unified the law enforcement and judicial standards for the typical minor crime of “drunk driving” and formed a governance system with two-way connection and hierarchical progression between administrative and criminal penalties. The system of reverse connection between administrative and criminal penalties for minor crime acts can bring about the positive effect of “removing from the scope of crime and bringing into administrative punishment”, and then play the positive governance effectiveness of preventing crimes and defusing risks, which has profound legitimate grounds. Currently, the reverse connection between administrative and criminal penalties is easily questioned due to practical dilemmas in terms of the necessity of punishment, the effectiveness of prevention, and the legality of sanctions. This leads to the loss of the original governance effect of reverse administrative penalties and the inaccuracy of the fairness of punishment. The reverse connection between administrative and criminal penalties for minor crime acts should be based on five dimensions: adhering to the function of modesty and restraint of criminal law, adhering to the principle of proportionality in administrative law, realizing the typological construction from individuality to commonality, enriching the legal content of statutory penalties, and improving the procedural rules of reverse connection. It should be close to the refined judicial needs of minor crime governance and the concept of flexible punishment, and forge a minor crime governance plan with Chinese characteristics.