Standardize The System Of Penalty Discretion Research

Standardizing the system of penalty discretion is the important judicial reformproject by the center, and also an important part of the Third Five-Year ReformProgram of the People’s Court. In the background of penalty discretion reform,sentencing becomes the current criminal law theory and practice for the focus ofdiscussion and research. As a worldwide hard problem, it is trying the best to researchfor us that how to standardize the system of penalty discretion to accord with therequirement of fair and justice.This article based on the information gathered from the academic and legislativeresource and started from the view of penalty judgment influencing by public opinion.The author gives some suggestion by means of analyzing the intrinsic factors andextrinsic factors influenced the sentence. This article has four Parts. It takes twentythousand words totally.In the first section of theory foundation, the author explains the definition andvalue of the penalty discretion. This section has two parts, the first part aims todefinite and clear the value of the penalty discretion. The other part is to introducetwo major principles of criminal law and the relationship between two principle andsentence, puts forward the penalty discretion activities should be conform to the principle of a legally prescribed punishment and responsibility of the principle ofsuitable punishment for discretion.In the second section, the author analyzes the factors of affect that the penaltydiscretion exercises. Firstly, it is the intrinsic factor that the author is raised, such ascriminal legislation and the existing criminal code in the relevant provisions of theimperfect, and the judicial level, justice is not independent, the judge’s personalfactors impact penalty activities. Secondly, it is the extrinsic factor that is the publicopinion. The author mainly analyzes the relationship between public opinion and thepenalty discretion, especially in recent years, public opinion penalty cause a serioushindrance to the penalty discretion.In the third section, the author introduces the system of penalty discretion of twolaw systems in the world. According to the representative countries, such as theUnited States, Britain, Germany and Japan, the author introduces the successfulexperience of standardizing the penalty discretion and is based on our country toestablish the system of penalty discretion.In the final section, on the base of the former three chapters, the author combinedwith our own situation, and proposes solutions of the system of penalty judgment.This section from three aspects to be regulated, the first section is mainly from theimprovement of criminal legislation, the development of sentencing norms. Thesecond section is the judicial system, such as reform of the judicial system,improvement of the personal qualities of judges. The third section is aim tostandardize the relationship of public opinion and the judiciary.