Study On The Life Imprisonment System For Corruption And Bribery Crimes

Under the background of strict restrictions on the application of the death penalty and severe anti-corruption in China,“the Criminal Law Amendment(Nine)of the People's Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the ‘Criminal Law Amendment(Nine)')” has added life imprisonment which shall not be commuted and paroled in serious corruption and Bribery Crimes.The introduction of this provision means that life imprisonment is established as codified law in our state for the first time.The establishment of life imprisonment has created the conditions to abolish the death penalty application in corruption and bribery crimes,while it plays the value of experimental field to limit and abolish the death penalty in non-violent crimes.However,the temporary increase of life imprisonment in the third review draft of “Criminal Law Amendment(Nine)”,so it has spelled intense discussion over its nature and theoretical basis in the theoretical circles.At present,there is not a unified understanding of the nature and theoretical basis of this system,and there are doubts that it satisfy the legitimacy and rationality of the penalty or not.Although the article of criminal law and the judicial interpretation provide the conditions for life imprisonment application,the rules are too abstract and the specific elements of the grasp is not specifically explained,it is difficult to form an effective guide to judicial practice.In this paper,according to discuss the basic theory of life imprisonment in our state,demonstrate the relative legitimacy of life imprisonment on crimes of embezzlement and bribery,comb the applicable condition of life imprisonment,analyze and explore the insufficiency of its own existence,so as to propose reasonable and feasible advice on life imprisonment.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the thesis is divided into four parts:The first part introduces the concept,legislative background and legalorientation of life imprisonment in corruption and bribery crimes.The life imprisonment in china only applies to the corruption and bribery crimes,and once application that shall not be commuted or paroled.There is great serious social harm in the corruption and bribery crimes,but the legal interests violation and the death penalty are unequal.Therefore,in the criminal policy context of strict restrictions on the application of the death penalty,the establishment of life imprisonment on one hand achieves the match of crime and punishment,on the other hand to improve the penalty structure of "overweight death penalty" in our state.The life imprisonment in our state is different from the extraterritorial life imprisonment,it is neither an independent penalty type of criminal law,nor kind of penalty execution,but the legal consequence of corruption and bribery crimes which is sentenced to death with a reprieve.At the same time,the life imprisonment shall not be used as the alternative measures of death penalty because of its dependence on the death penalty,but the transitional arrangement of abolishing the death penalty in corruption and bribery crimes.The second part demonstrates the legitimacy of life imprisonment for corruption and bribery.As a penalty measure,the life imprisonment should have the legitimate reason for its existence and application,in other words,it must satisfy the justice of retribution and purpose of crime prevention.Life imprisonment,as one of the consequences of death sentence with a reprieve,is the new discretion level which is increased upon the original discretion level.On one hand,it is can realize the corresponding relationship between the responsibility(the consequences of the crime)and the penalty,and its punishment can meet the justice of retribution;on the other hand,The characteristics that without commutation and parole can form a deterrent to potential criminals,which can help to strengthen citizens' "sense of loyalty" and prevent crime.Moreover,in the view of humanitarian,life imprisonment is consistent with humanitarianism because of the retention of human life.The third part combs the applicable conditions,retrospective effect oflife imprisonment and the effect of major meritorious on the execution of life imprisonment for corruption and bribery crimes.According to the doctrinal analysis of criminal rule,we can obtain the substantial and procedural conditions of the application to life imprisonment.On substance,the applicable Targets of life imprisonment are limited to chivalrous corruption and bribery,and applicable premise is sentenced to death penalty with a reprieve,and the substantive conditions is "criminal circumstances of crime".On procedure,The time that life imprisonment is decided as same to the time that death penalty with reprieve is sentenced.The retroactive effect of life imprisonment could not be generalized.According to the old law on the immediate execution of death penalty,but according to the new law on life imprisonment punishment is appropriate when incrimination cases can be traced back to apply.If according to the old law on death penalty with a reprieve,it should not be retroactive.The major meritorious can block the execution of life imprisonment,but it is important to pay attention to the time node in which it appears.The major meritorious that takes place during the period of the death penalty with a reprieve that can avoid the imprisonment on which life imprisonment is dependent,and block the execution of life imprisonment.But,the major meritorious during the execution of imprisonment can not block the implementation of life imprisonment.The fourth part points out the problems and the future development direction of life imprisonment.As the occasional legislation,it has determined that life imprisonment has its own defects as its born.Life imprisonment is not indeterminacy in the system of criminal penalty in our state,as the consequence of dual dependence on the death penalty and life imprisonment.Although criminal law and judicial interpretation has made a relatively definite provision for it,the application conditions of life imprisonment is vague without concrete elaboration.Under the background of death penalty is overweight in our state,the scope of application of life imprisonment is too narrow,the wide discretion of judges may easily havedifferent legal outcome of the trial on the same case.On the basis of investigating the relevant provisions of the extraterritorial situation,the improvement recommendations are put forward to for the existing problems.It should get rid of the dependence on death sentence,and include it in the scope of imprisonment,define the amount and circumstances of life imprisonment,reasonably expand the scope of application of life imprisonment.Add life imprisonment to the crimes which extreme violence and serious harm to national security,public safety and other cases.Perfect the criminal pardon system as the export of life imprisonment depend on sentencing suggestion,sentencing supervision and sentencing reasoning to standard the judge's power of discretion.