The special lane for the Winter Olympics has a temperature

The management measures for the special lanes for the Beijing Winter Olympics are "the first violation without penalty", reflecting the goodwill interaction between the government and the people in jointly building a "double Olympic city" under the framework of the rule of law.

The special lanes for the Beijing Winter Olympics have been in use for several days, and some citizens have received electronic tickets sent by the traffic management department. However, what is surprising is that the amount of the fine recorded on the electronic ticket is 0 yuan, and the score is 0 points. Obviously, this is the beijing traffic management department's application of the new regulation of the administrative punishment law "first violation without punishment", the decision to "not punish administrative punishment", although it is in the form of a fine to meet with the public, but it has the temperature of good faith law enforcement.

The newly revised Administrative Punishment Law in 2021 introduces a new rule of "no penalty for the first violation". Among them, the first paragraph of Article 33 stipulates that "where the first violation of the law is made and the harmful consequences are minor and the correction is made in a timely manner, no administrative punishment may be imposed", which reflects the orientation of the new administrative punishment law to "highlight the educational function and achieve the purpose of the rule of law through education", marking the progress of the mainland's administrative punishment system.

On January 11, 2022, the Beijing Municipal People's Government launched seven management measures to ensure the operation of the Winter Olympic traffic, one of which is to use the Olympic lane in stages and prohibit other vehicles from entering the Olympic lane within the specified time. In order to let the general public know, the Beijing Municipal Government issued a notice on January 14, 2021, and widely publicized it through the media, clients, traffic signs, etc.

However, objectively speaking, even in today's information dissemination is so developed, it is still inevitable that there will be citizens who have not received relevant information and then violate this management measure.

If, according to the traditional concept of the rule of law, a law is deemed to be known as soon as it is promulgated, and no one may claim pardon on the grounds of ignorance of the law. After the traffic management measures take effect, once they break into the special lanes of the Winter Olympics, they must be punished by relevant laws and regulations, regardless of whether they know or not, whether they are intentional and other special situations, so as to reflect the fairness and authority of the law.

"First violation without punishment" reflects another meaning of the law. When confronted with an offence that is minor and does not cause serious consequences, the law chooses the presumption of good faith, that is, the presumption that the people did not know and did not intentionally commit the first violation, and thus allowed the administrative organ to make a discretion of "no administrative punishment". To some extent, this presumption of goodwill also reflects the humble attitude of public power, that is, in the process of administrative law enforcement, the state does not take punishment as the purpose, but takes the prevention of violations and the maintenance of order as the ultimate goal, and educates and guides the people to participate in the improvement and improvement of social and public order.

Of course, "first violation without punishment" cannot be misread as "first violation is not punished". At present, this rule applies only to the field of administrative punishment and is limited to illegal acts with minor harmful consequences and can be corrected in a timely manner. "The first violation without punishment" cannot be misinterpreted as "the first violation must not be punished", and the first paragraph of article 33 of the Administrative Punishment Law uses the word "may", indicating that the law gives discretion to the administrative organ, and whether to impose a penalty is decided by the administrative organ according to the circumstances.

In March 2021, IOC President Bach proposed adding the word "Together," or "unity," after the Olympic motto "faster, higher, stronger." The management measures of the special lanes for the Beijing Winter Olympics are "the first violation without punishment", which reflects the goodwill interaction between the government and the people in jointly building a "double Olympic city" under the framework of the rule of law, which is a manifestation of unity. (Shen Liping)