Theoretical Reflection On The Life Imprisonment System In China

The term life imprisonment comes from Western countries and is reflected in law and practice as a major punishment in many countries.In the Criminal Law Amendment(IX)published on August 29,2015,the term “life imprisonment” first appeared in our criminal law.After the implementation of the amendment,criminals who have already had many cases have been sentenced to life imprisonment and cannot be commuted or released on parole.The establishment of the life imprisonment system in China is mainly based on two policy backgrounds.The first is the policy orientation of combating corruption and promoting honesty and increasing anti-corruption efforts.The second is the reform of the penal system,which improves the problem of “the death penalty is too heavy and the punishment is too light” in China's current penal system.The court ruled that criminals who used life imprisonment were sentenced to three situations.First,the execution of the death penalty during the execution of the death penalty period;the second,during the execution of the death penalty,there is no intentional crime,after the expiration of the two-year period,reduced to life imprisonment,under this premise,the provisions of life imprisonment,No commutation or parole shall be allowed;thirdly,during the period of execution of the death penalty,there will be significant meritorious performance,reduced to 25 years in prison.This situation is not suitable for the preconditions for life imprisonment.There is a great controversy in the academic world about the nature of life imprisonment and the positioning in the penal system.For the time being,life imprisonment has not been written into the general rules of criminal law and cannot be regarded as an independent principal penalty.Life imprisonment is currently only for corruption,bribery,and after the death penalty has been reduced to life imprisonment,it is not applicable independently for certain types of crime.In China's current criminal law,life imprisonment can only be regarded as a special case after the execution of the death penalty.The rationality of the current life imprisonment system in China is necessary for discussion.This paper discusses the rationality of introducing life penalty by the two backgrounds of objective punishment and retribution punishment.It also discusses the relationship between life imprisonment and the death penalty and the impact of introducing life imprisonment on the abolition of the death penalty.To introduce the life imprisonment system into China's criminal law,it is necessary to refer to other countries and related systems in ancient China,in order to establish a life imprisonment system suitable for the modernization of the legal system and suitable for China's national conditions.In some civil law systems and countries in the Anglo-American legal system,there is already a relatively complete life imprisonment system,to understand the applicable crimes and circumstances and some special regulations,in order to find the essence that can be used for reference.The expansion of life imprisonment is also a difficult proposition.Life imprisonment should not be included as an alternative to the death penalty in our criminal law.Life imprisonment is included in the main sentence,and it needs to be considered from the applicable crimes,applicable conditions and corrective exports of life imprisonment.