赦宥在中国古代死刑适用中的作用

赦宥作为一种特殊的制度,在中国古代死刑制度运作中具有重要的作用和影响。赦宥制度在中国古代法律制度中的存在具有自己特殊的文化语境。中国古代赦宥制度经历了从司法原则转变成政策的历程。报应观是中国古代赦宥制度中司法适用原则转变成政策的主要原因。中国古代统治者为了达到"威慑"与"自利"的目的,在赦宥的具体适用中演变出了复杂的制度设置和种类。从客观上看,此制度的出现使中国古代死刑适用在一定程度上减少了专制带来的司法专横,同时也使中国古代死刑制度的运行更加具有自身的特色。

Pardon for Capital Punishment in Ancient China

Pardon, a special institutional forgiveness, played an important role to and influenced greatly upon death penalty in ancient China, whose existence in the Chinese legal system is with special cultural context. In history, pardon underwent the change from a judicial principle into a policy, for which retribution was the main catalyst. To achieve the purposes of "deterrence" and "self-interest," the rulers in ancient China, while granting pardons, invented all the possible complex devices. Objectively speaking, pardons granted for death penalty in ancient China reduced to some extent the judicial arbitrariness resulting from autocracy and rendered a unique color to the execution of capital punishment in ancient China.