Abstract: Special defense stipulated in Chinese Criminal Law is a cause to prevent from responsibility due to lack of anticipated possibility， rather than a cause to prevent lawlessness based on the theory of balance of legal interests. The right of defense and justifiable defense system belong to different legal categories. The purpose of justifiable defense system is to limit the right of defense， but not to encourage and protect it. The provisions of the Criminal Law on special defense should be the legal fiction rather than attention. Unfortunately， judicial practice always follows the theory of balancing legal interests as a doctrine， so it is not necessary to understand special defense as attention to regulation. On the contrary， we should pay attention to the connotation of the cause of non-imputability. Special defense is a situation which is based on anticipated possibility and is objectively possible but subjectively impossible under the premise of over-defense. In the application of special defense， we should pay attention to the summary of judicial experience and form an objective judgment of anticipated possibility.

Key words: justifiable defense, special defense, cause of non-imputability