On The Issues For The Types And Determination Of Indirect Principal Offender

Indirect principal offender is a concept in the criminal law of continental law system, and it has not been used in Chinese legislation and judicial interpretation. In fact this issue is already within the view of theory studies concerning Chinese criminal law and plays an actual role in practice. It is because this term can be used to properly explain the situation in which the behavioral agent commits crime taking a people as an agency, while the agency should not be considered as an accomplice under certain circumstances. Deep discussion pertaining to the theory of indirect principal offender, especially the issues for types and determination of indirect principal offender, is of significance to the deepening of theories of indirect principal offender and to its criminal legislation and direction for practices. This thesis is divided into three parts:Firstly, the theoretical dispute for the types of indirect principal offender. Different opinions have been presented for the types of indirect principal offender, and the scopes vary from country to country owing to different understandings for the concept of indirect principal offender. Scholars in the countries of continental law system carry out deep and careful studies for this issue. While the Anglo-American law system stipulates innocent agent, which share some similarities with indirect principal offender in the continental law system. Compared with the countries from continental law system, Chinese law circles offer relatively superficial studies. And no systematic studies are made.