论刑事和解制度在我国的构建

刑事和解是在恢复性司法理念下所孕育的一种刑事案件解决模式。刑事和解制度的出现,提出了一种全新的解决刑事案件的方案。刑事和解制度体现了对被害人与犯罪人双方主体地住的尊重,寻求司法公正与效率的利益价值最大化。本文就如何设立我国的刑事和解制度做了一些构想。     

刑事和解的生存空间:市民刑法

市民刑法与敌人刑法的划分是21世纪初重要的刑法思想;刑事和解的人的目的性存在的哲学基础,所诠释的恢复性司法的恢复正义理念及刑事和解制度构建的适用范围均与市民刑法的内涵相契合;刑事和解制度的生存空间必然是市民刑法。本文将从刑事和解制度所具有深刻的哲学基础、所体现全新的司法理念,其制度构造的合理适用范围几个维度展开分析,试图论证这样一个基本命题:市民刑法是刑事和解制度的生存空间。     

刑事和解与刑法基本原则的关系——兼及刑事和解的价值取向

以恢复性司法理念为基础的刑事和解制度目前正逐渐成为我国刑事法学界和实务界的热门话题。刑事和解在尊重被害人、促使加害人认罪悔过改过自新方面,具有恢复失去的正义,尽快平息加害人与被害人之间矛盾的作用和促进社会和谐有不容忽视的优势;同时,刑事和解还体现了公正、谦抑、人道的刑法价值。刑事和解并非对刑法基本原则的背离,而是刑法基本原则的一种实现方式。     

刑事和解——推动司法现代化的新选择

刑事和解的思想渊源最早可追溯至原始社会的私人分割赔偿,但作为一种新型的刑事司法理论,其发端于20世纪中叶,是西方社会从国家本位转变到个人本位的新刑事思想和法律价值观变化的产物,刑事和解制度在司法实践的破冰,直接的动因来自日益增长的案件数量与审判资源有限性之间的矛盾,背后则显现了多重价值追求。它在维护成文法权威的前提下,融入了更多的人文关怀,体现了刑事司法从"有害的正义"到"无害的正义"的进步,符合中国传统文化底蕴和当下社会的和谐理念。     

刑事和解制度在中国的构建

刑事和解是恢复性司法的重要组成部分。国内学者对于刑事和解的定义存在争议,厘清它的定义有利于该制度在中国的构建。刑事和解适用于自诉案件、轻微刑事案件,目前尚不宜适用于严重的暴力性案件。作为刑事和解成果的和解协议可作为减刑和免除刑罚的依据。中国刑事和解制度的构建可从刑法和刑事诉讼法上着手,分近期、中期和远期三个阶段来完成。     

刑事和解制度之“源流考”与“法理辨”——刑法史学、刑法哲学与犯罪学视域下的探究

现代的刑事司法理念将犯罪视为对社会秩序的危害，强调对犯罪的惩罚，这种理念忽略了犯罪同样是对被害人的侵害，对于被害人受损利益的补偿关注极其缺乏。在反思现代司法理念后，为了达到充分保护被害人利益的目标，20世纪70年代西方国家开始建立刑事和解制度。这项制度对于中国刑事司法改革具有积极的借鉴意义，其与我国“和为贵”的传统理念价值相契合，也适应了刑罚轻缓化的刑事政策要求，对实现“无害的正义”有着深切意涵。本文笔者将从刑法史学的维度切入，探寻刑事和解的制度渊源，并在犯罪学的视域下考量该项制度的学术语境，进而从刑法哲学的角度剖析刑事和解制度的理论根基和程序价值。     

恢复性司法视野下刑事和解的衡平建构

恢复性司法是刑事和解的理论基础,刑事和解需要置于恢复性司法的视野下才能全面发掘刑事和解的制度价值。刑事和解与我国传统观念存在价值上的的冲突,故要实现刑事和解的衡平建以刑事一体化理念为指导,构筑受害人谅解基础、健全柔性刑罚体系、建立刑事被害人救助制度、引入刑法人格化理念。     

中国刑法立法模式下刑事和解的方式研究

由于我国立法的定量模式，已经使得在外国可以和解的大部分案件被排除在我国法律规定的犯罪之外。此时，如果仅仅原样引入外国的刑事和解制度，并且为了表示对这种先进制度的认同而一定要寻找出比较确定的适用范围，其结果很可能就是将在国外也不一定进入刑事和解领域的案件划入刑事和解范围，从而导致刑法价值的异化。为了避免这种异化，就应当设计符合我国犯罪成立条件特点的和解理念之实现方式，即依据刑事和解的理念，在较轻的刑事案件中和解可以免于刑事程序；在不是较轻的一般刑事案件中和解可以导致免于刑事处罚、减轻处罚；在较重甚至严重的刑事案件中和解可以导致免于死刑、重刑．而裁量一般的刑罚。     

中国藏区刑事和解问题研究——以青海藏区为中心的调查分析

在中国藏区,刑事和解有着悠久的历史传统,是该地区重要的刑事冲突解决机制。近年来,在和谐社会语境下,中国藏区的刑事和解有所复兴,主要表现为诉讼外和解与诉讼内和解两种形式,其基本依据是盛行于当地的和解赔偿习惯法;实践中,和解的主持者主要是在当地具有威望的长老、宗教人士、村长、部落头人的后裔、司法人员等。就整体而言,中国藏区的刑事和解与国家刑事司法之间是冲突的,而且造成这种冲突的原因较为复杂。为了解决这一冲突,实现中国藏区刑事法治的良性发展,应以维护刑法规范的有效性和彻底解决刑事冲突为功能向度,建立包括刑事案件发现制度、诉讼外和解确认制度和诉讼内和解制度为基本内容的刑事和解制度。     

论刑罚正义观念的演进

自从有了法律意义上的刑罚，刑罚正义一直是法学家关切的主题。刑事古典学派和刑事实证学派分别阐述论证了各自的刑罚正义思想——个人本位与社会本位的价值观念，个人本位和社会本位的刑罚正义思想分歧的实质在于如何处理个人自由平等与社会秩序的关系问题，即自由平等与秩序的价值关系问题。秩序是法治社会的基本价值需要，没有良好的秩序，也就没有公民的自由和平等。同样，自由和平等是人的自然权利，没有公民个人的自由与平等，也就不会有良好秩序的形成。现代法治社会中的刑罚正义思想则体现出二者内在的辩证统一。     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Immigration,intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period

In this article we compare the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. We try to explain different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee's assimilation theory and pay special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. We therefore compare colonial with non colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with ‘European’ (Christian) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions. First of all, religion appears to be an important variable. Migrants whose faith has no tradition in Western Europe intermarry at a much lower rate than those whose religious backgrounds correspond with those that are common in the country of settlement. The rate of ethnic endogamous marriages in Western Europe are highest in Hindu and Muslim communities, often regardless if they came as guest workers or colonial migrants. Whereas differences in religion diminish the propensity to intermarry, colour or ‘racial’ differences on the other hand seem to be less important. This is largely explained by the pre-migration socialisation. Furthermore, the paper argues that the attention to institutions, as rightly advocated by Richard Alba and Victor Nee, needs a more refined and layered elaboration. Institutions, often as barriers to intermarriage, do not only emanate from the receiving society, but also—be it less formalized—within migrant communities. Especially religions and family systems, but also organized nationalist feelings, can have a profound influence on how migrants think about endogamy. Finally, strong pressures to assimilate, often through institutionalized forms of discrimination and stigmatization, not only produce isolation and frustrate assimilation (with resulting low intermarriage rates), but can also stimulate assimilation by 'passing' mechanisms. These factors, together with a more comparative perspective, are not completely ignored in the new assimilation theory, but—as this study of Western European intermarriage patterns stresses—deserve to be included more systematically in historical and social scientist analyses.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

Illumination,Imagination, Creativity: Rājaśekhara,Kuntaka, and Jagannātha on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pratibhā</Emphasis>

Sanskrit poeticians make the visionary faculty of pratibhā a necessary part of the professional poet’s make-up. The term has a pre-history in Bhartṛhari’s linguistic metaphysics, where it is used to explain the unitary perception of meaning. This essay examines the relation between pratibhā and possible theories of the imagination, with a focus on three unusual theoreticians—Rājaśekhara, Kuntaka, and Jagannātha Paṇḍita. Rājaśekhara offers an analysis of pratibhā that is heavily interactive, requiring the discerning presence of the bhāvaka listener or critic; he also positions pratibhā in relation to Bildung (vyutpatti) and practice. For Kuntaka, pratibhā, never an ex nihilo creation by a poet, serves as the basis for the peculiar forms of intensified insight and experience that constitute poetry; these may also involve the creative scrambling and re-articulation of the object in terms of its systemic composition. At times, Kuntaka’s pratibhā comes close to a strong notion of imaginative process. But the full-fledged thematization of the imagination, and of pratibhā as its support and mechanism, is best seen in the seventeenth-century debates preserved for us by Jagannātha. A link is suggested between the discourse of poetic imagination in Jagannātha and similar themes that turn up in Indo-Persian poets such as Bedil.     

Preventing Homelessness for System‐Involved Youth

Too many youth and young adults find themselves on the streets, couch‐surfing with friends, in emergency shelters or worse, after exiting the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In some circumstances, youth have had court hearings until their exit from the legal system, but those hearings have not focused on long‐range plans of youth and emergencies youth may encounter. In other circumstances, there has been little or no planning prior to discharge, especially for young people who leave the juvenile justice system. Courts can and should prevent, alleviate or end youth homelessness for youth who appear before them through strategies that are enumerated in the recently‐passed NCJFCJ resolution. This article expounds on three of these strategies – coordinating transition and re‐entry plans, insisting on effective legal representation of youth, and utilizing sound judicial leadership. It also describes the concurrent efforts of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice and the American Bar Association's Homeless Youth Legal Network to remove legal barriers and improve outcomes for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.     

Best practices for structuring a family court parenting plan evaluation under the 2022 AFCC Guidelines

Evaluation appointment orders provide enforceable scaffolding for conduct of family court parenting plan evaluations, and use of the evaluator's reports, feedback, file, and testimony. Unlike a contract, a stipulated or adjudicated appointment order is directly enforceable by the family court. It unambiguously positions the evaluator as the family court's appointee – answerable directly to the court and, in some jurisdictions, protected by quasi-judicial immunity from damages claims. A well-crafted appointment order governs the roles and expectations of the court, the evaluator, the parties, the lawyers, and the collateral witnesses. An appointment order mandates the legal duties, rights, powers, and responsibilities of the professionals, the parties, and the collateral witnesses. At minimum, an appointment order articulates the legal basis for the appointment, the purpose and scope of the evaluation, compensation of evaluator, and the duty of the parties to participate in the process. A written evaluation protocol or procedures statement discloses in advance the methods of investigation and assessment that the evaluator intends to use. Together, the appointment order and written protocol help the evaluator, lawyers, parents, and judge manage the complexity of the evaluation process.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Anyathākhyāti</Emphasis>: A Critique by Appaya Dīkṣita in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Parimala</Emphasis>

In this paper, the problem of illusory perception, as approached by the Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta schools of philosophy, is discussed from the standpoint of the Parimala. This seminal work belonging to the Bhāmatī tradition of Advaita Vedānta was composed in the sixteenth century by the polymath Appaya Dīk?ita. In the context of discussing various theories of illusion, Dīk?ita dwells upon the Nyāya theory of anyathākhyāti, and its connection with jñānalak?a?apratyāsatti as a causal factor for perception, and closely examines if such an extraordinary (alaukika) perception is tenable to explain illusory perception. He then proceeds to point out the deficiencies of this model and thereby brings to the fore the anirvacanīyakhyāti of Advaitins as the only theory which stands scrutiny.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)