Study On Chinese Life Imprisonment System

At present,life imprisonment as a severe punishment in free penalty,has clear provisions in the criminal legislation of every country all over the world,and has been widely applied in the criminal justice.With the worldwide soaring voice of the death penalty abolition,life imprisonment system as an alternative to the death penalty has been extensively discussed in the criminal law community.After the enactment of the Amendment to Criminal Law(9)in November,2015,the concept of life imprisonment has appeared in specific provisions of Chinese criminal law for the first time.Although differentiated from the life imprisonment concept stipulated by the criminal laws of most foreign countries,Chinese system of life imprisonment can be executed,and its progressive significance is self-evident.This not only reveals the theory and institutional innovation of Amendment to Criminal Law(9),but is also in accordance with the international trend and academic consensus of abolition of the death penalty.However,the research of life imprisonment is at its early stage as it's still exotic.Amendment to Criminal Law(9)only considered it as a penalty provision of corruption and bribery crimes.Therefore,the study on imprisonment in our country cannot be simply compared with the foreign theories.The criminal law community has held great controversies on this issue,scholars supporting the establishment of life imprisonment in China is on one hand,the others opposing it is on the other hand.For better or worse,both positive and negative viewpoints have provided valuable information for life imprisonment research in China,as well as helping us to get objective and rational analysis of Chinese life imprisonment with the help of predecessors' experience.It also helps us to know its advantages and disadvantages,and its essence.Based on the above thinking,this paper will mainly focus on the following aspects to explore life imprisonment in China.Chapter One is a summary of life imprisonment.This chapter tries to define the nature of life imprisonment in China through studying related institutions both home and abroad.Then it discriminates the life imprisonment in China from other punishment concepts that are closely related,in order to clarify the ranks of life imprisonment,thus laying a foundation for further elaboration.Chapter Two,based on the legitimacy theory of punishment,analyzes the practical and theoretical foundation set up by life imprisonment,brings about the idea that lifeimprisonment conforms to the criminal policy needs and our current situation.Thus life imprisonment has its own rationality of existence.Chapter Three takes a close study on the application situation of Chinese life imprisonment,so as to seek the influence by the first revision of life imprisonment to academicians and practitioners.Furthermore,this chapter analyzes the shortcomings and causes of the life imprisonment application,laying a realistic foundation for the solutions thereafter.Based on the foregoing three chapters,Chapter Four is the most important part of the whole article.This chapter renders solutions for the existing problems of life imprisonment proposed in Chapter Three,hoping to be helpful for the later application and improvement of life imprisonment in China.