An Investigation Into Some Questions Regarding Fines

The revised new criminal law issued by China in 1997 greatly increased the scope for the use of fines and pecuniary penalties. At the same time it greatly enhanced the strength of financial penalties. As a result, fines, are now widely applied in trying criminal cases. However, looking at the actual implementation of the new criminal law in the last three years, there are fairly widespread errors in the actual imposition of fines. Indeed, the implementation of fines has become a major problem for the criminal justice system, which greatly attenuates the effectiveness of fines in punishing criminals. In view of this, this paper focuses on the link between fines in theory and in practice. On the basis of evaluating the new criminal law's legislative regulations, it investigates some problems relating to the application of fines, reasons and policies why it is difficult to implement fines, and ways to improve fines legislation. It puts forward the author's own opinions, in the hope that they will be of assistance to the judiciary in correctly applying fines in practise, and to bringing into play the full effectiveness of fines in punishing criminals. The new Criminal Law makes clear changes in fines legislation. This is embodied in four areas. Firstly, the applicable scope of fines has been greatly widened. Two, there are now a large number of regulations which demand the imposition of compulsory fines, and the weight of the fines which are imposed has been increased. Thirdly, the new law makes use of sum limited fines and multiple proportion fines, and clarifies corresponding size of particular fines. Fourthly, the law has regulations for the collection of fines, and improvements in the means of enforcement. This paper fully approves the above changes to fines legislation, and argues that such changes are not only a major step forward for criminal legislation in this country, but must have a deep and far-reaching affect on Chinese criminal legislation. The extension of the applicable scope of fines runs with the international tide towards more lenient criminal sentencing. It also suits the needs of our country's development of a socialist market economy. The compulsory application of large fines would be helpful in developing a major role for fines in punishing criminals, and would give full rein to the special financial aspects of fines. Improving implementation methods for fines would ensure to the greatest possible degree that the fines imposed were, at the end of the day, collected. In actual legal practice, accurate application of fines has an enormous significance. Therefore, this paper puts forward four principles which should be adhered to in correctly imposing fines. The first is the principle of lawful application. The second is an appropriate balance between the main sentence and additional punishment. The third is the principle of careful consideration. The fourth is the principle of legal mitigation. Using these principles as a basis, this paper discusses two particular problems in the contemporary use of fines, and includes an expression of the author's own viewpoint. The first question is the issue of the use of fines for under age criminals. This paper argues that the use of fines to punish under age criminals not only has a legal basis and practical significance, but is feasible to implement. The second issue is the imposition of fines alone on a natural person criminal. On this head, the paper argues that such fines are not only the best embodiment of penal lenience, but also have significance for actual implementation. In practise, three conditions should be met before fines a re used as the sole sentence: there must be a basis in law; the case must involve a minor degree of criminality; or the circumstances of the crime must be less than serious. Moreover, imposition of fines alone on a natural person must not result in any further danger to society. With the widespread use of compulsary fines, the question of the difficulty of actually collecting fines becomes more and more ser...