对酌定不起诉的探讨

修改后的《刑事诉讼法》取消了免予起诉制度,同时扩大了不起诉的范围,设立了酌定不起诉和存疑不起诉。酌定不起诉就是《刑事诉讼法》第一百四十二条第二款规定的“对于犯罪情节显著轻微,依照刑法规定不需要判处刑罚或者免除刑罚的,人民检察院可以作出不起诉的决定。”而根据《刑事诉讼法》第十二条规定,未经人民法院依法判决,对任何人都不得确定有罪。那么,在酌定不起诉制度下,犯罪嫌疑人是否有罪 ?是否排除了检察机关的定罪权 ?笔者在本文中将对上述问题进行探讨,并提出关于完善酌定不起诉制度的一管之见。 　　一、在现行酌定不…     

论我国酌定不起诉制度的缺陷与重构

现行刑事诉讼法的酌定不起诉制度,赋予了检察院事实上的审判权,违背了控审分离原则及未经人民法院依法判决不得确定有罪原则.与此同时,其对犯罪嫌疑人权利救济不足、实践中适用比例过小等问题也十分突出,引人深思.本文深入探讨了我国现行酌定不起诉制度的理论缺陷与现实困境,并在此基础上初步构想了如何改革与健全酌定不起诉制度.     

简议相对不起诉的性质

刑事诉讼法修正案扩大了不起诉的范围，保留了免予起诉的合理内容，对于犯罪情节轻微，依照刑法规定不需要判处刑罚或者免除处罚的，人民检察院可以作出不起诉决定。这就是法学界所称的相对不起诉。对于这种不起诉的性质，有人认为：这是一种有罪的决定，产生与法院有罪判决相同的法律后果。其理由是刑诉法第一百四十二条规定的不起诉的前提就是“犯罪情节轻微”，它所依据的刑法条文也都是有罪的条款。还有一部分人认为，根据刑诉法第十二条规定：“未经人民法院依法判决，对任何人都不得确定有罪。”不起诉决定是在未经法院判决前就终止诉…     

简论证据不足不起诉

证据不足不起诉是我国刑事诉讼法所确立的一种不起诉类型 ,它同法定不起诉和轻罪不起诉一同构成我国的不起诉制度。我国刑事诉讼法第 1 40条第 4款规定 :“对于补充侦查的案件 ,人民检察院仍然认为证据不足 ,不符合起诉条件的 ,可以作出不起诉的决定。”刑事诉讼中证据不足不起诉的法理基础是无罪推定原则。根据联合国公民权利和政治权利国际公约第 1 4条第 2款规定 ,无罪推定是指 :“凡受刑事控告者 ,在未依法证实有罪之前应当有权视为无罪。”无罪推定从证据证明来说 ,必然演绎出罪疑从无 ,证据不足作无罪处理的结论。根据我国刑事诉讼法…     

免予起诉没有侵犯审判权

免予起诉没有侵犯审判权张振高近几年来，我国法学理论界对免予起诉制度的存废问题争论颇为热烈，提出了许多有益的见解。其中免诉权与审判权的关系问题是争论的热点之一。主张废除免予起诉制度的一些同志认为：“免予起诉实际是一种有罪判决，就其实质来说，这是人民检察...     

不起诉制度若干问题研究

五、证据不足的不起诉的效力 根据无罪推定原则和举证责任的理论,控方应当承担指控被告人有罪的举证责任,如果没有确实、充分的证据证明被告人有罪,应当作无罪处理。人民检察院审查起诉时,如果认为证据不足,特别是经过补充侦查,仍然认为证据不足的,根据法律规定,应当作出不起诉决定,这也是无罪推定原则和举证责任理论的具体运用和体现。但是,司法实践中存在这样一个问题,即证据不足的不起诉决定作出后,如果发现新的事实和证据足以推翻原决定,这时是否允许重新起诉?这个问题涉及到先前作出的不起诉决定的法律效力问题。     

免予起诉没有侵犯审判权

免予起诉没有侵犯审判权张振高有些同志把免予起诉的“认定有罪”视为是“定罪结果”，把免予起诉的有罪认定等同于刑事判决的定罪效力，进而推论出免予起诉是行使、限制、分割和侵犯了审判权。其实，这是一种误解。检察机关在对刑事案件作出起诉、不诉或免予起诉的决定前...     

简析反贪案件的撤案与不起诉

自从《刑事诉讼法》修改后，反贪案件的最终处理结果一般只有两种：一是移迭起诉后由法院审判；二是因不构成犯罪或证据不足的做撤案处理或不起诉。有不少检、法两家有争议的案件由于法院不作有罪判决，检察机关撤回起诉后，以及有些案件在不能移送起诉的情况下，是作撤案处理还是作不起诉处理，在检察机关内部的反贪和起诉部门有不少争议。在此谈谈自己的看法。     

相对不起诉人员重新故意犯罪应从重处罚

刑诉法第142条第2款规定：“对于犯罪情节轻微，依照刑法规定不需要判处刑罚或者免除刑罚的，人民检察院可以作出不起诉决定。”这就是相对不起诉。这种不起诉的法律后果是：不在法律上给犯罪嫌疑人作有罪的结论，不按犯罪处理，不计前科。但是，即便如此，笔者认为，对相对不起诉后在一定期限内又重新犯罪的人员，仍应予以从重处罚。之所以提出这一观点，主要基于以下几点考虑：     

论我国不起诉制度之立法完善

我国刑事诉讼法的不起诉制度存在着诸多缺陷,如法定不起诉范围规定不全面,酌定不起诉适用空间狭窄,不起诉救济制度多为事后救济等,暂缓起诉制度司法实践先行,缺乏法律依据等,因而,必须改革完善不起诉制度,使不起诉制度发挥其应有的价值。具体来说就是要完善法定不起诉和酌定不起诉的适用范围,改革和完善不起诉的制约救济机制,增设暂缓起诉制度。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Turning a Madhyamaka Trick: Reply to Huntington

Huntington (2007); argues that recent commentators (Robinson, 1957; Hayes, 1994; Tillemans, 1999; Garfield and Priest, 2002) err in attributing to Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti a commitment to rationality and to the use of argument, and that these commentators do violence to the Madhyamaka project by using rational reconstruction in their interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s and Candrakīrti’s texts. Huntington argues instead that mādhyamikas reject reasoning, distrust logic and do not offer arguments. He also argues that interpreters ought to recuse themselves from argument in order to be faithful to these texts. I demonstrate that he is wrong in all respects: Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts.     

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.)

     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

Vedic Language and Vaiṣṇava Theology:Madhva’s Use of Nirukta in his Ṛgbhāṣya

This article explores the way in which Madhva (1238–1317), the founder of the Dvaita Vedānta system of Hindu thought, reformulates the traditional exegetic practice of nirukta or “word derivation” to validate his pluralistic, hierarchical, and Vaiṣṇava reading of the Ṛgvedic hymns. Madhva’s Ṛgbhāṣya (RB) is conspicuous for its heavy reliance on and unique deployment of this exegetical tactic to validate several key features of his distinctive theology. These features include his belief in Viṣṇu’s unique possession of all perfect attributes (guṇaparipūrṇatva) and His related conveyability by all Vedic words (sarvaśabdavācyatva). Such an understanding of Vedic language invokes the basic nirukta presupposition that words are eternally affiliated with the meanings they convey. But it is also based onMadhva’s access to a lexicon entitled Vyāsa’s Nirukti with which his critics and perhaps even his commentators seem to be unfamiliar.While the precise status of this text is the subject of ongoing debate, Madhva’s possession of special insight into the sacred canon is established in part by his unique claim to be an avatāra of the wind god Vāyu and a direct disciple of Viṣṇu Himself in the form of Vyāsa₁. Thus, Madhva’s use of nirukta invokes his personal charisma to challenge not only conventional understandings of the hymns but traditional exegetic norms. Madhva’s provision of an alternative tradition of nirukta provoked sectarian debate throughout the Vijayanagara period over the extent to which one could innovate in established practices of reading the Veda. Articulating the Veda’s precise authority was a key feature of Brahmin debates during this period and reflects both the empire’s concern with promoting a shared religious ideology and the competition among rival Brahman sects for imperial patronage that this concern elicited. By looking at how two of Madhva’s most important commentators (the 14^th-century Jayatīrtha and the 17^th-century Rāghavendra) sought to defend his niruktis, this article will explore how notions of normative nirukta were articulated in response to Madhva’s deviations. At the same time, however, examining Madhva’s commentators’ defense of his niruktis also demonstrates the extent to which Madhva actually adhered to selected exegetic norms. This reveals that discomfort with Madhva’s particular methods for deriving words stemmed, in part, from a more general ambivalence towards this exegetical tactic whose inherent open-endedness threatened to undermine the fixity of the canon’s very substance: its language. Vyāsa’s Nirukti is one of several ”unknown sources” cited in Madhva’s commentaries whose exact status continues to be debated. Some scholars (e.g. Rao, Sharma, Siauve) maintain that these texts are part of a now lost Pāṅcarātra tradition that Madhva is attempting to preserve. This may be true for many of these citations. However, in addition to claiming to be both an avatāra of Vāyu and Viṣṇu-as-Vyāsa’s student, Madhva states in several places (e.g., VTN 42, RB 162) that the canon has suffered loss during transmission and that only Viṣṇu can reveal it in its entirety. Thus, it is possible that Madhva intends texts like Vyāsa’s Nirukti to be viewed as part of an ongoing and corrective revelation, a notion that is compatible with many Vaiṣṇava traditions (Halbfass, 1991: 4).     

The Mūlāvidyā Controversy Among Advaita Vedāntins: was Śaṅkara Himself Responsible?

The concept of avidyā or ignorance is central to the Advaita Vedāntic position of Śȧnkara. The post-Śaṅkara Advaitins wrote sub-commentaries on the original texts of Śaṅkara with the intention of strengthening his views. Over the passage of time the views of these sub-commentators of Śaṅkara came to be regarded as representing the doctrine of Advaita particularly with regard to the concept of avidyā. Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati, a scholar-monk of Holenarsipur, challenged the accepted tradition through the publication of his work Mūlāvidyānirāsaḥ, particularly with regard to the avidyādoctrine. It was his contention that the post-Śaṅkara commentators brought their own innovations particularly on the nature of avidyā. This was the idea of mūlāvidyā or ‘root ignorance’, a positive entity which is the material cause of the phenomenal world. Saraswati argues that such an idea of mūlāvidyā is not to be found in the bhāṣyas (commentaries) of Śaṅkara and is foisted upon Śaṅkara. This paper attempts to show that although Śaṅkara may not have explicitly favoured such a view of mūlāvidyā, his lack of clarity on the nature of avidyā left enough scope for the post-Śaṅkara commentators to take such a position on avidyā.     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.