Protection Of Civil Rights Criminal

Each department law has its own specific objectives or expected values. Criminal law is one of important department laws. The positioning of its intended purpose is directly related to the protection of the rights of society as well as the level of the protection. The essential functions of criminal law are regulation and restriction. However, in the legislation, interpretation, and application of the criminal law, there exist different expectations from these two groups:the appliers-the governors, and the target-the people. The state or the governors focus on the criminal law’s functions on preventing crime and maintaining social order, while the people are more interested in the other function of the criminal law-the constraints of the state power. Criminal law is playing an irreplaceable role, due to its function of regulation, on protecting the interests of the state and society. However, too much emphasizing on the regulative function of criminal law, is equivalent to the weakening of its constraint function. This may lead to the elimination of people’s legal rights, due to the possible lack of effective checks on the power of the state. In the system of rights, civil rights are the most basic rights related to the citizen’s life and development. It has been drawing continuous attention on the fact that the civil rights of offenders, who are the objects of the criminal law, can not be effectively protected. This paper attempts to study the issue on protection of the civil rights for offenders.However, the civil rights are in a huge system of rights, which are related to the individual, family, society, and many other fields. It would be ideal, but hardly possible for the author, to explore all the problems on protection of civil rights of criminals. To this end, the paper will discuss about protection of civil rights of offenders, by studying the deprivation of political rights from the provisions of the Criminal Law and its consequences.In this paper, comparison, analysis, and empirical methods, etc will be used to comprehensively examine the protection of civil rights of criminals. Suggestions and recommendations will be given to improve the system on protection of the civil rights of offenders. In addition to the introduction, there will be four chapters.IntroductionIn the introduction, the background of determining the main topics of the thesis, the significance of the topic, research objectives, and the situation of the domestic research on this topic will be are reviewed.Chapter I,"The basis and value of protection of civil rights of criminals"First, from the concept of protection of offenders’civil rights, the history of the development of criminal law is discussed, that is, the protection of the civil rights of criminals are gradually strengthened. The concept of protecting criminals’ civil rights in China is also analyzed, in order to conceptually strengthen the protection of civil rights of offenders. Secondly, the history of protection of civil rights of criminals in both the west and China are briefly presented, which reflects that it is inadequate on the protection of civil rights of criminals in China, due to historical reasons. The analysis attempts the emphasis on the importance of criminals’civil rights protection. Thirdly, the necessity of protection of civil rights of offenders are also demonstrated, from various aspects such as human rights, political and social rights of citizens, and the protection function of criminal law, etc. Finally, the value of protection of civil rights of criminals is discussed. It is beneficial on realization of humanitarianism in our socialism, on development of rule of law and civilization, and on the rehabilitation of offenders, in order for them to return to society and maintaining the social stability.Chapter II,"Law concept of protection of civil rights of criminals"First of all, the changing process of the concept of civil law (ancient-modern-modern) is analyzed and compared. It is found that this changing process is actually the process of from overlooking of individual rights to the pursuit of absolute protection of individual rights, which is actually the process of the pursuit of substantive justice. The basic idea of the modern civil law focuses on protecting the overall interests of society and socio-economic order, based on the protection of individual rights.Secondly, the changing process of the concept of criminal law (ancient modern-modern) is analyzed and compared. It is found that this changing process is also the process of the pursuit of substantive justice. It eventually gave birth to the relatively reasonable concept of modern criminal law-the integration of protection of individual rights and the social interests. It indicates that solely emphasis on either protection of individual rights or the protection of social interests is problematic. It is best to take into account both of them. In other words, the idea of the modern criminal law is a way of philosophy, in which both protection of social security and protection of individual rights are included, and it is a concept of non-biased mutual protection.It is found that the modern civil law concepts and criminal law share some common features on protection of individual rights. The embodiment of civil law concept in the criminal law is also analyzed. It is further illustrated that the protection of civil rights of offenders is one of the basic concept of the modern criminal law.Chapter Ⅲ,"The status of protection of civil rights of criminals."The chapter comprehensively analyzes the situation in protection of civil rights of criminals whose political rights are deprived. First, from the origin on the qualifications penalty, the historical background of deprivation of political rights was presented. The use and the object of deprivation of political rights are also discussed. It indicates that the deprivation of political rights is a form of political punishment, and it is a tool of class confliction. Second, the use of deprivation of political rights leads to the lack of protection of civil rights of criminals. The understanding of China’s scholars on the connotation and extension of the political rights is also studied. It is found that there are significant inconsistencies on the definition of political rights. Thus, the connotation and extension of political rights are summarized and analyzed from the constitutional and political perspectives. It implies that the content of the deprivation of "speech, press, association, meetings, processions, and freedom of demonstration, etc" according to criminal law does not belong to the deprivation of political rights, but the deprivation of basic rights of citizens. These are the basics and source all other rights, and therefore, they are inalienable. Also, in order to truly protect civil rights of criminals, the legitimacy and rationality of the content in the deprivation of political rights are analyzed. It is found that this provision is neither legal nor reasonable. Finally, the nature of deprivation of criminals’ political rights is discussed. It is a tool of class confliction, which is a kind of historical residue from a specific period in the modern criminal law.Chapter IV,"Practical way of improving the protection on civil rights of criminals in China"First, the causes of lack of criminals’civil rights protection are revealed in three aspects:(A) The absence of legal principles on legislation resulting in "political" and the arbitrary legislation;(B) Overpunishment principle in the legislative and judicial process;(C) The "political" punitive nature of deprivation of criminal political rights. Secondly, the author proposed some practical options on fully protection of civil rights of offenders.First, the concept of targeting the criminal lawOnly with the correct orientation in the criminal legislation and justice, two extreme tendencies may be overcome:first, universal laws and legal dogmatism, implying that the criminal law can solve all social contradictions and social conflicts, resulting in inhumanity of criminal law; second, legal nihilism, implying that the criminal is dispensable, ignoring the important role of criminal law, resulting in lack of regulation.Second, changes in the concept of crimeRecognition of the social necessity of the existence of crime is important. The existence of crime is a social norm, which can never be eliminated. Therefore, one should not try to eliminate crime by pursuing the draconian legal code in the expense of ignoring the civil rights of criminals. Meanwhile, the role of crime in promoting social progress should be recognized.Third, changes in the criminal law (punishment)The drawbacks of criminal penalties should be recognized first. The first one is their limitation, mainly reflected in terms of punishing and preventing crime; the second one is the negative effects, primarily reflected in the over-reliance on criminal law and the neglect of other means.Fourth, the target of criminal law legislationFirst, the scope of the criminal law should be reasonable. The criminal law should not be extended to all areas of society and life. The purpose of intervention is to maintain and expand freedom. Regulation of criminal law should leave freedom to the society and personals as much as possible, so as to ensure the role of enthusiasm and creativity in promoting the social development. Moreover, the less the need of mandatory sanctions, the better for the purpose of laws to consolidate social peace and harmony, just like the situation that the optimal state of drug effect is that the body does not rely on it. In addition, the excessive expansion of the scope of legal control leads to the adverse image of the government, because frequent and severe penalties are signs of the government’s weakness or incompetence, and the regime that uses excessive penalty is a weak regime. Second, the rationality and the balance of the legal control are important.Before determining the regulation scope of the criminal law, it is necessary to consider the validity of social control by other specifications, such as moral, civil, economic, and administrative, etc. Only when no other social norms and regulations are able to control the behavior, one may consider including the regulation of the behavior into the scope of criminal law. Meanwhile, the criminal law should be balanced against the interests of protection. Therefore, in the development of criminal law, one should pay attention to the balance and coordination of protection on national interests, social interests, and personal interests. The interests protected by criminal law can be divided into three types: national interests, social interests, and personal interests. One should not emphasize only the interests of one type and neglect those of the other two.Limitations and Future work:Although this study made some achievements on protection the civil rights of offenders, it is limited by the research conditions, the means of research, and the author’s knowledge and capability. Although the author has made every effort to give a comprehensive analysis about the topic, there are still many issues to be further deepened in the research, especially for such a field in which both theory and practice need to be addressed. In addition, empirical analysis has yet to be further strengthened.