刑法罪名“僵尸化”的现象、机理及对策

Research on “Zombie” Crime in Criminal Law

刑法中长期处于未用、罕用、弃用状态的“僵尸”罪名现象由来已久。其生成机理既有风险社会降临后预防性、象征性立法观引领等总体原因,也有社会变迁引发个别犯罪自然消亡、一次法重大调整导致若干罪名适用对象被“强制清空”、仓促入刑造成新罪名难以适用、常见罪名广泛适用促使个别罪名被“架空”等具体成因。该现象的存续,对刑法权威的有效彰显、刑法功能的正确认知、社会治理的合理安排、刑法文本的集约利用均造成不良后果。对此,可考虑采用对“僵而应灭”型罪名彻底移除、对“僵而可替”型罪名替换适用、对“僵而待复”型罪名有效激活等手段解决这一问题。

The phenomenon of“zombie”crime in criminal law—unused,abandoned or rarely used names of crime—has existed for a long time.Its formation mechanism includes not only the arrival of risk society and the general reasons behind preventive and symbolic legislation,but also the specific social changes leading to the natural disappearance of individual crimes,a major adjustment of the law leading to the“mandatory emptiness”of the applicable objects of some crimes,the lack of regulatory objects,and the wide application of common charges leading to the“emptiness”of individual crimes.The existence of this phenomenon has caused adverse consequences to the effective manifestation of the authority of criminal law,the correct cognition of the function of criminal law,the reasonable arrangement of social governance,and the intensive use of criminal law texts.In view of this,we can take different measures to deal with the phenomenon of“zombie”crimes,such as the complete removal of“rigid-but-should-be-eliminated”crimes,the replacement of“rigid-but-can-be-replaced”crimes,and the effective activation of“rigid-but-should-be-restored”crimes.