The Death Penalty: A Focus of Attention Both at Home and Abroad

Author: Chen Zexian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Among the criminal codes of various countries in the world, China's criminal code has the most articles and crimes stipulated for the application of the death penalty. At the same time, China is also the country with the most death sentences imposed and executed. Perhaps this can still be understood, because China is the country with the most population in the world. However, if a country's population accounts for 1/5 of the world's population, yet the number of death penalty cases exceeds the total number of death penalty cases in all other countries in the world, this cannot but attract attention and provoke deep reflection. The Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Danish Institute for Human Rights have been collaborating for a long time to conduct in-depth research on the issue of the death penalty. They jointly organized the "International Symposium on the Death Penalty" with the Law School of Xiangtan University in December 2002 and with the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in November 2004. Numerous experts and scholars from China, the United States, South Korea, Denmark, Lithuania, Georgia, and other countries presented papers at the symposium and engaged in on various aspects of the death penalty in China and abroad from perspectives such as legal history, legal philosophy, criminal law, procedural law, international law, human rights law, sociology, and ethics. This book is a collection of the best papers from those excellent presentations.