Comments On Implement And Improvement Of The Principle Of A Legally Prescribed Punishment For A Specified Crime In Our Country's Criminal Law

It has been nearly a hundred years since the late Qing dynasty when the Principle of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime was imported into China, but this copy of western civilization seems difficult to integrate with the mainstream of Chinese legal culture. After countless arguments on being abolished or exist, 97 version was eventually confirmed as a basic principle of China's Criminal Law, which is regarded as a milestone in China's criminal law history. But in the cheerful joy, we should be clearly conscious of that the legislation realization of this Principle does not only lie in the exist of some proverb-like statement in criminal law, but also its penetration into all criminal law provisions as a kind of guiding theory, which is more important. Making a general review of China's current criminal law, we can still find a lot of problems about the Principle of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime, such as its double-faced expression, the disregard to human rights ensurence, the great deviation between some provisions and the requirement of the principle. These problems in the current criminal law are not rare ."Born in Huainan grows into orange, born in Huaibei grows into raisin". Similar with the fruit described in the saying, Principal of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime, which is originated in western society, is difficult to flourish in the water and the soil of China. What's the reason and how to internalize it to China's criminal law spirit, instead simply presenting it as a kind of legislation expression? These problems are worth thinking about.According to the above mentioned problems, this paper based on the history background of the Principle of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime when it emerged, points out human rights protection is the stable implication of the Principle, and the value of the criminal law lies in its function of social defense and human rights safeguard; when bringing it into criminal law, we should not only realize this principle by explicit and deterministic standardization of criminal punishment, but also by guaranteeing the priority of human rights protection in criminal law. On this basis, the paper simply describes the process of the principle being brought into our country's criminal law system and its significance, lists in details many deviations between the current criminal law and the principle, and points out that the lack of civil society stage, the bad influence of traditional criminal law concepts and the deficiency of legislation technique are the reason for these defects. Finally, this paper suggests that we should change the old criminal law concepts, gradually realize the law's relaxation, improve legislation technique and strictly regulate the explanation of criminal law, especially the judicial interpretation. By these means, we can promote the principle of a legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime and truly make our country's criminal law become a good law implicated with the value of the principle.