Analysis On Abolishment Of The Penalty Of Property

Confiscation of property is a very ancient punishment,which was conducted throughout almost every stage of Chinese history.Since the beginning of the Criminal Law revision in 1997,the question of confiscation of property is increasing.Although the legislators still keep the confiscation of property in the criminal Law,the issue whether it should be kept or not has been taken more and more seriously in recent 20 years.In this essay,it will be discussed why confiscation of property should be abolished based on this debate.Firstly,we should clarify the prerequisite question before starting the confiscation of property law abolishing debate.A point has been made that the confiscation of property law violates the principle of protecting citizens' legal property rights under the constitution,the principle that crimes and punishments should be applicable to each other and the principle of bearing responsibility solely for one's own crime.If we can prove any one of above-mentioned points,then it would be unnecessary to discuss the pros and cons of the confiscation of property law because any one above point can be a solid evidence to abolish the confiscation of property law.However,we cannot find material evidence of the above arguments.Therefore,we need to compare its advantages and disadvantages.According to reviewing all the views from both sides,we can find out that the focus of this dispute is what role does the confiscation of property penalty play to remain being kept with all its disadvantages.Secondly,through summarizing the legislative configuration,we can figure outthe legislators expect its function as a heavy sentence for greedy crimes and other serious crimes.Meanwhile,I figured that the application rate of confiscation of property is very low through my empirical study of judicial precedent,which is less than 1% in 4 years and only dozens of cases happen per year.Also,the applicable charges are concentrated.Although there are 78 accusation that applies confiscation of property theoretically,but it only happened to some particular accusations in practice.In some case,the confiscated amount is very flexible and has fuzzy connection with the principal punishment.At the meantime,some cases are somehow equal to fine punishment.The general institution and special institution are showing confusing trend,which might only lead to disaster.In consequence,confiscation of property has been seriously separated between the legislation and justice,which leads to its negligible practical function.At this point,it is sufficient to discuss the abolishment of the confiscation of property penalty.From the feasibility point of view,it no longer meets the requirements of the times and already been abolished in most countries.Fine punishment,as another kind of property-related punishment,can totally replace it in the penalty system.From the point of necessity,abolishment of the confiscation of property penalty comply with the trend of lightening punishment,which is also beneficial for international criminal cooperation.The confiscation of property penalty already completed its task and it might be the right time for it to be abolished now.After the confiscation of property penalty being abolished,we can keep the penalty system complete by adopting fine punishment and improving the special confiscation system.Certainly,more research is needed for the specific improvement measures.