英美刑法杀人罪中的“挑衅原则”及其启示

The Doctrine of Provocation in Anglo-American Homicide Law and It’s Enlightening Significances

挑衅原则是英美刑法杀人罪中的一项重要辩护原则,指原本属于谋杀罪的杀人行为,如果行为人是在受到被害人挑衅而陷于强烈冲动的情况下实施的,应当降低为故意杀人罪定罪,对行为人处以较轻的刑罚。挑衅辩护需具备三个条件:被害人实施了挑衅行为,行为人因挑衅丧失了自控能力,挑衅达到了使一般人丧失自控能力的程度。挑衅辩护是一种部分的可宽恕事由,其根据在于行为人的主观可责性降低了。挑衅杀人实质上即我国刑法中的“义愤杀人”。“义愤杀人”与一些国家刑法总则中规定的“激情犯罪”情节不同,其成立标准比一般的“激情犯罪”更加严格。挑衅原则对于研究我国刑法中“义愤杀人”的内部构造、从轻处罚根据和认定标准具有借鉴、启示作用。

The doctrine of provocation is an important defense principle in Anglo-American homicide law.It means a killing which would otherwise be murder should be reduced to voluntary manslaughter if it is committed when the actor is in heat of passion resulted from the victim’s provocative act,and therefore the actor’s penalty is mitigated.The defense of provocation contains three elements:the provocative act by the victim,the actor have been provoked to lose his self-control;the provocative act is sufficiently grave to cause a reasonable person to lose self-control.The defense is a partial excuse and it’s rationale is that the provoked actor is less culpable for his action.Provoked killing is essentially the“righteous indignation killing”in Chinese criminal law.“Righteous indignation killing”is different from the circumstance of“heat of passion crimes”in the general provisions of criminal law as the former has more strict conditions than the latter.The doctrine of provocation has enlightening significances to our study on the structure,rationales and application standards of the“righteous indignation killing”.