On Perjury

Perjury is a kind of ancient crime, related to substantive and procedural law, and seriously taken by every state all along. However, much is still worth studying.The first chapter combs the legi'slation against perjury in the history of criminal law, expounds the status of penury in the Crimes of Impairing Judicial Demonstration-the base of the crimes of impairing proofs.The second chapter clarifies the philosophical grounds of criminalizing the conduct of perjury-"relatively free will", the ethical grounds-honesty ,and the law grounds-the reasonableness and legality of a witness bearing an obligation to testify ,the social pemiciousness of the conduct of perjury, and the unity of retribution and deterrence. It also puts forward the three principals of penalty intervening the conduct of perjury: the principal of necessity, of the last coercion, and of moderate degree.The third chapter analyzes the concept and constitutional characteristics of perjury.The fourth chapter analyzes the criminal forms of perjury, clarifies the differences between perjury and other crimes, points out the referential value offoreign countries' special regulations of determining perjury to our country ,and dissects the penalty for perjury.The last chapter analyzes the legislative limits in perjury, and puts forward the following consummation: perjury can exist in civil and administrative lawsuits; the injured party in criminal lawsuits , the litigants in civil lawsuits and police instead of the clerk can commit perjury; the conduct of harboring by perjury should constitute the crime of covering up a criminal; the close relatives of the suspects and defendants harboring them by perjury may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment or be exempted from punishment; and criminal fine should be added to.