行政处罚处理期限制度的反思与完善——以潘龙泉诉新沂市公安局治安行政处罚案为切入点

Reflection on and Perfection of the System of Time Limit for Processing Administrative Penalty:Taking the Case “PAN Long-quan v.s. Xinyi Public Security Bureau for the Administrative Penalty for Public Security” as the Entry Point

行政处罚法中对于行政处罚的处理期限并没有规定,当前关于行政处罚处理期限的规定散见于法律、地方性法规、规章等位阶不同的法律规范中,但是在某些处罚领域依旧没有处理期限的规定。在有法律规定的领域,其中规定内容杂乱无章,并没有形成统一的标准。再加之对处理期限制度没有清晰的定位,导致学界和司法实践对超期作出的处罚行为的效力都没有清晰的认知。这种不完善的处理期限制度在实践中会损害公民的权利,增加行政主体滥用权力的可能性和增加司法裁判的不确定性。因此,行政处罚处理期限制度需要向处理时效制度转变。处理时效具体来说包括以下几个关键点:时效的起算点、时效的期限、时效的延长、时效的排除事由、时效的终结点、最长时效和时效的法律后果。

Time limit for processing administrative penalty, which are currently scattered in different ranks of legal norms such as laws, local laws and regulations, and rules, has not been stipulated in the Administrative Penalties Law and is still absent in certain penalty fields. In fields where there are legal stipulations, contents of the regulation is disorderly and unsystematic and do not form a unified standard. In addition, there is no clear positioning of the system of time limit for processing, which leads to the result that there is no clear understanding of the effectiveness of the punishment action exceeding the time limit. Such an imperfect system of time limit for processing will harm the rights of citizens in practice, and will increase the possibility of abuse of power by administrative subject and the uncertainty of judicial adjudication. Therefore, the system of time limit for processing administrative penalty should be changed to the system of term of validity for processing which needs a unified stipulation. Specifically, term of validity for processing includes the following key points: the starting point of term of validity, the time limit of term of validity, the extension of term of validity, reasons of excluding term of validity, the ending point of term of validity, the longest term of validity, and the legal consequence of term of validity.