Meaning construction and judicial identification: Difficulties and countermeasures of criminal regulation of illegal fundraising behavior on online P2P lending platforms

Abstract At present, there exist several difficulties in the criminal regulation of illegal fundraising activities on China’s P2P platforms, such as discovering, identifying, tracking, and preventing. To solve these difficulties in the criminal regulations, this study applies the problem-oriented approach to evaluate the meaning constructions of illegal fundraising behavior on online P2P lending platforms in the corresponding judicial identifications, that is, judicial regulations and interpretations. After analyzing the judicial documents of 192 criminal cases in China, this study finds that it is necessary to actively draw on successful extra-territorial experience, and further establish a reasonable balance between maintaining financial security and promoting financial innovation. Specifically, the judiciary could adjust the current single loose criminal policy into one that combines leniency with rigidity, perfect the criminal law and its interpretation system of illegal fundraising behavior on P2P platforms, strengthen the connection mechanism of punishment and execution, explore the specialized case-handling mechanism, and implement a case guidance system.