Research On Thoughts Of Criminal Policy Of Legalists

The legalists advocate"rule by law" in Chinese ancient times. "The law" enthroned by legalists was considered political criterion which established by the monarch, and it is used for "defining right "and" establishing fair". "The law" contains two aspects, one is punishment, and another is reward. Thoughts of criminal policy of legalists are the policy thoughts concerning punishment.The rationale of thoughts of legalists includes following contents: The theory of human nature that"pursuing benefit and evading harm", the society model that"tripartite opposition of the monarch, the official and the people", the two-dimensional structure of law that"punishment and reward", the idea of development that"different times and different strategies", the administrative strategy that"concentrating strength and one goal"and the national policy that"rule by law". Thoughts of criminal policy of legalists include following contents: Attacking steals and violent crimes, powerful nation and weak people, governing people by punishment, eliminating punishment by punishment, the heavy penalty policy, praising the reward and censuring the punished, equal punishment, trusty reward and trusty punishment , maintaining the stability of law , punishment being judged in the public mind .The heavy penalty policy is the core part of the thoughts of Legalists, and it includes six aspects specifically: Regular punishments and rare rewards, making penalty severer and reward rarer, misdemeanor with heavy penalty, punishing the just occurred, rewarding exposing crimes, punishment for being related. There are some special criminal policy thoughts in "GuanZi". They are administration complies with public sentiment, the best policy being proper policy, interdicting micro-evil, not amnestying minor offenses and the comprehensive treatment for violence.Thoughts of criminal policy of legalists were practiced by Chin Dynasty. Taking the unification by Shihhuang as the threshold, there are two stages. In the first stage, the positive effect is the principal aspect, and in the latter stage, the negative effect is the principal aspect. The fact reveals the flaw of thoughts of legalists, which is only suited for the tumultuous times, and not suited for peaceful world. The legalists deeply believe that"pursuing benefit and evading harm"is human's natural disposition, which they only take as the basis to explain crimes and frame strategies on guarding against and controlling crimes. Therefore the understanding of legalists about crimes is too simple and their strategies on guarding against and controlling crimes are too...