Criminal Law Review

Author: Chen Xingliang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-20
Features: This volume is the 15th issue of Criminal Law Review, and it is a very rich one, especially with some unfamiliar names appearing in the author group, which is encouraging. Criminal Law Review has always been committed to promoting new talents and using this as a long-term strategy to advance the development of criminal law theory in China. The issue of the death penalty is currently not only a focus of academia but also a hot topic of public concern. At the annual meeting of the Chinese Society of Criminal Law Scholars held in Beijing (September 10-11, 2004), the death penalty was one of the main topics, and the conference proceedings were compiled into a collection titled Research on the Death Penalty (Volume 1 and 2, totaling 1.34 million words). From the papers and discussions at the conference, it is evident that scholars have a clear consensus on the death penalty: strictly limit it and ultimately abolish it. However, we must recognize that there is a significant gap between the public's understanding of the death penalty and that of scholars. Recently, scholars' remarks on abolishing the death penalty for economic crimes were published in the media, causing public outrage. Below is an excerpt from a post by netizen "Yun Shui Tan Nuan" on People's Daily's Strong Nation Forum, which reflects the public's reaction vividly.