Abstract: The effective regulation of smuggling depends on reasonable division and cooperation between administrative law and criminal law.The hierarchy in applying public law requires that administrative law should be the conventional method of social administration while criminal law should be “the last law”.However，the conviction of small-amount smuggling is just the violation to the above-mentioned regulation，which has transcended the general cognition of the concept of crime in Chinese society.The justifiability of criminalization of small-amount smuggling deserves reflection，and the validity of criminalization cannot be proven in practice.Dilemma and confusion in the law application just means that it is necessary to bring administrative legislation into full play and maintain the modest and restrained principle of the criminal legislation.

Key words: small-amount smuggling；application of , public law