Abstract
Criminal compensation campaigns rose in France in the second half of the 18th century, and the criminal compensation system had been essentially established in Continental countries and some American countries by the late 19th century. A new round of criminal compensation campaign has been launched in the United States, Japan and other countries or regions in Asia since the first half of the 20th century. Especially with the formulation of international or regional human rights conventions and establishment of relevant organizations, criminal compensation has become a basic civil right and an international obligation worldwide. On May 12, 1994, the Seventh Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress deliberated and passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on State Compensation, where Chapter III stipulated criminal compensation scope, organs for compensatory obligations and compensation procedures, and Chapter IV stipulated criminal compensation methods and calculation standards, representing the establishment of state compensation system. The law had been implemented since January 1, 1995, and was deliberated and approved on the Fourteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on April 29, 2010, for the first time, modified the criminal compensation part of the State Compensation Law on a large scale, including criminal compensation procedures, scope, mental damage compensation, compensation payment, etc. The State Compensation Law was referred to as State Compensation Law of the People’s Republic of China of 1994 whilst the amended one was referred to as State Compensation Law of the People’s Republic of China of 2010. The problems such as "Difficulty in Claim for Compensation", "Difficulty in Enforcement"and "Implicit Compensation" in criminal compensation have always been significant since more than 20 years ago where the State Compensation Law was first implemented.To focus on the problem of interest imbalance in criminal compensation in China, the author adopted a variety of research methods, including literature analysis method, historical investigation method, comparison research method, case study method to study the interest imbalance in criminal compensation from different angles, seeking to make research results authentic and scientific to the greatest extent. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part is Chapter I, which mainly includes the reason, purpose and value of selecting the research subject, and an overview of research literature of criminal compensation field in European countries, common law countries and China, laying the foundation for the research in this paper.
The second part contains Chapters II, III and IV, which mainly studies the interest imbalance in the criminal compensation legislation in China and the interest imbalance increasingly intensified and distorted by criminal compensation justice and external environmental factors. Among them, the Chapter II studies interest imbalance in the criminal compensation legislation in China with prerequisite problems of criminal compensation imbalance as the logical starting point. Mainly includes: 1. The factors that influence the imbalance of criminal compensation legislation; 2. Imbalance of public interest priority principle in the criminal compensation legislation in China; 3. Interest imbalance in personal freedom compensation; 4. Interest imbalance in property damage compensation; 5. Interest imbalance in mental damage compensation. Chapter III studies interest imbalance in the criminal compensation justice in China, which includes three aspects, namely, interest imbalance in the system of organs liable for compensation, interest imbalance in the system of compensation committee and interest imbalance caused by judicial policy. Chapter IV studies the influence of various environmental factors on interest balance of criminal compensation in China. These factors mainly include influence of government behavior, influence of public opinions and influence of victim's right relief behavior.
The third part is Chapter V, focusing on the reform of interest imbalance in criminal compensation in China. Seven suggestions for the reform are proposed based on elaborating the guiding ideology of the reform for interest imbalance in criminal compensation in China: first, develop a separate criminal compensation law; second, the central financial department shall guarantee compensation expenses; third, conduct litigation reform for criminal compensation procedures; fourth, set subject qualification standard for application of criminal compensation; fifth, set principles and standards for criminal compensation; sixth, divide scopes for criminal compensation damage; seventh, add remedial relief beyond monetary compensation to call for a comprehensive relief system for criminal compensation.
The fourth part is the conclusion. The author thinks that, only by paying more attention to the particularity of national criminal judicial torts and persistent damage to innocent citizens and adhering to problem orientation with right relief as the core to elaborate scopes, standards procedures and responsibility principles of criminal compensation, can the balance of various interests be realized in criminal compensation. Meanwhile, compensation is an inferior choice and prevention is foremost. The criminal justice systems must be reformed in a synchronous way to ensure that the unjust cases will not happen, which is the most effective relief for civil rights.
The contribution or innovation made by this paper is that, the author studies the imbalance of interests caused by the legislation, justice and environmental factors of China's criminal compensation with the help of a large number of legal texts, research literature and specific cases, analyzes the root causes of "Difficulty in Claim for Compensation", "Difficulty in Enforcement"and "Implicit Compensation" in the implementation process of criminal compensation system, and based on this, puts forward the legislative guiding concept of criminal compensation on a basis of "victim centralism" to provide comprehensive and restorative assistance for the victims in unjust criminal cases, so as to achieve a reasonable balance between the interests of the state and the personal interests of the victims in criminal compensation.
| Date of Award | 29 Aug 2018 |
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| Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Feng LIN (Supervisor) |