对增设“终身监禁”条款的法逻辑解读

Legal Logic of the Additional Life Imprisonment Provision

"终身监禁"与"无期徒刑"这两个语词具有相同内涵与外延,是同一个概念。立法者将这两个语词在同一法条中并列使用,并且将"可以减刑、假释"这一属性赋予给"无期徒刑",而将"既不得减刑也不得假释"这一属性赋予给"终身监禁",从而导致"终身监禁既是无期徒刑的种概念又不是它的种概念"、"终身监禁既是无期徒刑又不是无期徒刑"的逻辑矛盾,违反了"立法不得包含矛盾"的基本原则,因而刑法修正案(九)是一个失败的立法。由于"既不得减刑也不得假释的无期徒刑"就能够达到让特重大贪污受贿犯罪分子在监狱老死终生、把牢底坐穿的刑罚目的,因而增设"终身监禁"纯属画蛇添足之举。在6位学者对刑法修正案(九)的权威解读中,由于缺乏对"终身监禁"这个本来表达"刑种"概念的语词在引入我国刑法体系后为什么变成了表达"刑罚执行方式"概念的语词的说理论证,存在着违反划分规则、违反减刑适用的基本原理等错误,导致了诸如"多出子项"、"多标准"、"自相矛盾"等逻辑错误,因而权威解读是不能成立的,并没有为增设"终身监禁"提供具有说服力的说理论证。

The terms'life imprisonment(A=终身监禁)'and'life imprisonment(B=无期徒刑)'(different expressions in Chinese)have the same connotation and denotation and are the same concept.The legislator uses the two terms in parallel in the same article;and grants the latter the characteristic of'being capable of commutation and parole'while grants the former the characteristic of'not being capable of commutation or parole'.Such act leads to the logical contradictions that'life imprisonment(A)is,at the same time,the sub-concept of life imprisonment(B)and not the sub-concept of life imprisonment(B)';and'life imprisonment(A)is,on the one hand life imprisonment(B),and on the other hand not life imprisonment(B)'.Hence,due to the above violation of the basic principle that'legislation shall not contain contradictions',the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Law is a failure.Moreover,since the very purpose of the penalty,namely maintaining those special criminals of severe corruption and bribery in the prison till the end of their lives would be achieved by'life imprisonment(B)'alone,which itself includes the possible situation of no commutation or parole,thus the addition of'life imprisonment(A)'is purely superfluous.The six scholars’interpretation of the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Law fails to provide legal reasoning and analysis of why'life imprisonment(A)',as a category of criminal penalty per se,becomes an expression of'a mode of penalty execution'.Such interpretation violates the rule of categorization as well as the basic principle of the application of commutation etc.,and results in several logical errors,such as'extra subset','multi-standards',and'self-contradiction'.Consequently,those scholars’interpretation is untenable and provides no persuasive legal reasoning to the addition of'life imprisonmen(A)'.