Criminal Governance Dilemmas and Improvement of Illegal Sand Mining Cases

LIU Ziqi

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-7328.2026.增刊1.026

Abstract：With the steady advancement of ecological civilization construction in China,the criminal governance of illegal sand mining has become an important issue for river and lake governance and water resources security guarantee.Although the Interpretation on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Illegal or Destructive Mining issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 2016 provided key normative basis for the criminal governance of illegal sand mining,judicial practice still faces dilemmas including low criminal transfer rates,imbalanced legal interest evaluation,and conflicts of competing charges.Through dogmatic analysis,this paper proposed the special composite legal interest of illegal sand mining cases compared with illegal mining.Aiming at the virtual displacement problem of ecological environment legal interest in judicial practice,it is suggested that the legal status of appraisal and assessment subject be granted to river basin management agencies through institutional design to lower the threshold for ecological damage assessment.Regarding legal application,it is advocated that the crime of illegal mining and the crime of theft should constitute statutory competition of provisions,and conviction and sentencing should follow the principle that special law prevails over general law,so as to maintain the administrative-criminal boundary of illegal sand mining cases.In addition,aiming at the logical paradox of administrative prerequisite procedures caused by amendments to relevant legal norms,it is proposed that a three-layer hierarchical governance structure of"administrative order—administrative penalty—criminal sanction"be constructed,achieving organic unity between river and lake resources development and ecological environment protection through comprehensive governance with clear normative hierarchy and effective administrative-criminal connection.