Research On The Constitutionality Of The Deprivation Of Political Rights In The Criminal Law

Constitutional review,which is called the arch stone of Constitutional State building,is the most important system of constitutional guarantee.Its functions include safeguarding citizens' basic rights,maintaining the unity of law and order and so on.Scholars have different viewpoints about the penalty of depriving political rights,some scholars even raised objections before the revision of the criminal law in 1997.The concept of "deprivation of political rights" in China's current Constitution appears only once in Article 34 proviso.However,depriving the right to vote and to stand for election stipulated in Article 34 of the Constitution should also apply only to criminals who commit crimes related to these two rights,such as crimes against the state,crimes of sabotage of elections,crimes of corruption and bribery.Otherwise,it violates the justification of punishment for crime prevention within the scope of retribution penalty and fails to pass the examination of the principle of proportionality.Article 35 of the Constitution,which stipulates citizens' freedom of speech,publication,assembly,association,procession and demonstration,does not stipulate what these rights can be deprived of,nor is there any other constitutional provision empowering the laws to restrict or deprive citizens of freedom of speech,etc.In addition,there are less restrictive means,and deprivation of freedom of speech has more disadvantages than advantages.Therefore,the provisions of the Criminal Law which are about deprivation ofthe rights stipulated in Article 35 of the Constitution are suspected to be unconstitutional,and any interpretation can not get rid of the suspected unconstitutional,so it should be abolished.