宪法学上的一种死刑观——以美国宪法原理和判例为中心的考察

On Death Penalty from the Perspective of Constitutional Law: an Investigation Centered on the American Constitutional Principles and Legal Precedents

时至今日,不论人们是否赞同死刑废止论,死刑的存废之争已具有毋庸置疑的学理价值和实践意义。我国虽然也存在这种讨论,但长期以来,这些讨论主要是在刑法学界中展开的,最终形成的主流观点是主张贯彻"少杀、慎杀"的刑事政策,其间似乎欠缺坚实的"实定法学"框架之内的学理论证,而仅囿于单纯的道德、政治或刑事政策上的考量与论说。有鉴于此,笔者力图从宪法学出发另辟蹊径,论述宪法上的酷刑禁止原理,并主要通过分析以现代美国的判例与学说为代表的死刑酷刑论以及这种论证的结构和策略,揭示现代宪法的死刑观,并透视其对完善我国死刑制度所可能具有的借镜意义。

Nowadays,whether people agree with the abolishment of death penalty,the controversy over reserving or abolishing it is theoretically and practically meaningful.This long dispute in our country is always seen in the field of criminal law of which the majority of views propose to adopt the criminal policy of 'less and discreet execution',which seems to lack solid theoretical proof in the frame of legal positivism and is purely limited to the consideration and views of morality,politics or criminal policy.Therefore,the author of this paper attempts to demonstrate the prohibitive principle of torture from a unique perspective of the constitutional law on the issue.Through analyzing modern American legal precedents and theories claiming that the capital punishment is torture and their theoretical framework and strategy,this paper tries to uncover the modern views on death penalty from the perspective of constitutional law and to shed light on the possible favorable reference for perfecting our policy of death penalty.