First, the name of prison science
Academic circles have long held different views on the name of prison science. At first, it was a dispute between the law of labor reform and the science of labor reform. Some people advocate that reeducation through labor (prison science) is called reeducation through labor, while others advocate that reeducation through labor is called reeducation through labor. However, after the promulgation and implementation of 1994 "People's Republic of China (PRC) Prison Law", it has evolved into a dispute between prison science and prison science, each with its own reasons.
The author thinks that prison law and prison science are two closely related but different disciplines. Although both of them are the science of studying prisons, their research focuses and angles are different. Prison law mainly studies the principles, principles, systems and methods of prison legislation and prison execution from the legal point of view, that is, it focuses on the prison legal system. In addition to the study of prison legal system, prison science should also study prison history, prison management, prisoner education, prisoner labor, prisoner psychology, prison economic management, prison medical and health care, prison construction, social protection of released prisoners and so on. Thus, the relationship between prison law and prison science is the relationship between part and whole. But in fact, the research contents and scope of prison law and prison science often intersect and merge with each other. When people study the prison legal system, they are always inseparable from the general principles of prisons and various measures and means to reform criminals. Similarly, when people study the general theory and doctrine of prison, they can't do without various legal provisions about prison.
Throughout all kinds of prison monographs and textbooks published in China before liberation, it is said that prison science is in the majority. Judging from the available materials, the main names of the prison law are The Law of Solitary Prison edited by Liu Da Mi (1907) and The Theory of Prison Law edited by Rui Jiarui (1933). Although some works are called Prison Science, they are not significantly different from Prison Law in system and content. For example, in September of 1936, Li Jianhua compiled Prison Science, the central content of which was a systematic exposition of the prison rules promulgated by the Nanjing National Government in 1928. Actually, it is an annotated prison law, which is basically consistent with Rui Jiarui's prison law theory. This shows that prison science and prison law are both sciences that study prison, a special social phenomenon, and it is difficult to completely separate them.
Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with the vigorous development of prison theory research, the scope of prison science research has been continuously expanded, and many new branches have been derived from the matrix of prison science, including: prison history, prison law, prison management, educational reform (criminal education), criminal labor, criminal reform psychology, prison economic management, prison police management, prison investigation, supervision medicine, regression sociology, and so on. These sub-disciplines are not only closely related, but also have their own relatively independent research objects, which together constitute the disciplinary system of prison science in China. At present, prison law is not only a branch of prison science but also a branch of law. Because of this, the China Prison Law Research Association is not only a professional research association under the China Prison Society, but also a professional research association under the china law society, under the dual leadership of the China Prison Society and china law society.
Prison law is separated from prison science and becomes an independent branch discipline, which is the inevitable result of the in-depth development of prison science. 198 1 year 1 1 month The editorial department of the law textbook jointly organized by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education named this textbook "Law on Labor Reform" when organizing the compilation of the textbook. This is the first time that China has used the name of "Labor Reform Law". After that, 1984, the Ministry of Education decided to take the law of reeducation through labor as a legal professional course and included it in the four-year teaching plan of the law department of a comprehensive university. From June, 65438 to July, 0985, china law society Labor Reform Law Research Association was formally established. In this way, as an independent legal department, the labor reform law has been recognized by the legal profession and society. At that time, because the science of reeducation through labor in China was still in its infancy, people usually summarized the practical experience of reeducation through labor in China based on the Regulations on Reeducation through Labor in People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Detailed Rules on Discipline of Prisons and Reform-through-Labor Teams, and promoted it to a scientific theory. Therefore, it is logical to call reform-through-labour science reform-through-labour law, and we do not pay much attention to the principle difference between reform-through-labour law and reform-through-labour law. However, since the mid-1980s, with the rapid development of the country's political, economic, cultural and educational undertakings and the deepening of the reform of reform through labor, various educational and research institutions for reform through labor have been established one after another, and it is urgent to broaden the research field and scope of reform through labor science to meet the needs of the development of the objective situation. In this situation, if we are still confined to the study of reform-through-labour practice from the perspective of law, it will inevitably hinder the extensive and in-depth development of reform-through-labour science. As a result, a series of new sub-disciplines, such as prison management, education reform, criminal labor and so on, were born. The labor reform law has become a branch of labor reform. Therefore, it is necessary to separate the prison law (labor reform law) from the matrix of prison science (labor reform law) and become a relatively independent branch discipline, which is the inevitable product and important symbol of the prosperity and development of prison science.
Second, the disciplinary nature of prison science.
At present, Chinese academic circles hold many different views on the disciplinary attribute of prison science, mainly: 1. It belongs to politics; 2. It belongs to management science; 3. It belongs to pedagogy; 4. It belongs to sociology; 5. It belongs to the law; 6. It belongs to comprehensive social science.
The reason why it belongs to political science is that prison is an important part of the state machine, and the penalty execution power it exercises is an important part of the state power. As far as prison itself is concerned, it belongs to the political superstructure, so prison science with prison as the main research object should belong to political science.
Management is advocated because it plays an important role in prison work, such as police management, prison management, production management, economic management and so on. The main content of prison science is to study the management activities of prisons, so it belongs to management science.
Pedagogy is advocated because the fundamental purpose of prisons in China is to educate and reform criminals and prevent and reduce crimes. All kinds of supervision, productive labor, administrative management, assessment, rewards and punishments and other activities carried out by prisons. All of them are based on education to transform criminals into law-abiding citizens and have the function of education and probation. Therefore, prison science, which focuses on educating and reforming criminals, should belong to pedagogy.
The reason why it claims to belong to sociology is because sociology is a science with society as its research object. It not only analyzes and studies the society as a whole, but also studies a certain part of society or social structure, its position and role in the whole society and social changes, and so on. Prison itself is a small society, and there are various complicated social relations and corresponding social behaviors. Therefore, prison science, which focuses on social relations and social behaviors between people in prison, belongs to sociology.
The reason why comprehensive social science is advocated is that the comprehensiveness of prison science comes from the comprehensiveness of prison work. The prison in New China is not the prison in the past, nor is it a place where criminals are simply held; In a sense, the prisons in New China are special schools, factories or farms. It is these characteristics that lay a solid foundation for the comprehensiveness of prison science. In the past twenty years, through the hard work of the prison theory circle, guided by the basic principles of Marxism and using multidisciplinary principles, the rich experience of prison work in New China has been sublimated into theory, and the original prison science has been enriched into a discipline group including more than a dozen branches, forming an independent comprehensive social science. Comrades who insist on being a comprehensive social science think: "Prison science not only has political and legal attributes, but also goes beyond the scope of politics and law. Therefore, it is inaccurate to think that prison science belongs to politics or law. In addition, the view that prison science belongs to management, sociology or pedagogy is also inaccurate. "
The reason why it claims to belong to law science is that the legal attribute of prison science depends on the nature of prison itself and its basic functions. As a national penalty execution organ, the basic function of prison is to execute penalty, punish and reform criminals. The particularity of this research object determines that prison science is closely related to criminal law, criminal procedure law, jurisprudence and other disciplines, so prison science belongs to law. Prison science and its branches (such as prisoner education, prisoner labor, prisoner reform psychology, prison economic management, supervision medicine, etc.), no matter how different their research angles and contents, and how extensive their scientific principles are, are all carried out around the theme of prison execution, and they all summarize and summarize prison legislation and judicial practice from different aspects, with the aim of correctly executing penalties and effectively punishing and reforming criminals. In other words, prison science is based on prison execution (that is, the execution of free punishment). Judging from its research content, prison and its police are the main body of prison execution; The punishment and reform of criminals is the content of prison execution; Criminals are the targets of punishment and reform; Supervision, education and labor are the means to reform and correct criminals; Prison police management, prison economic management and prison procuratorial supervision are the guarantee of prison execution. If you leave the prison for execution, prison science and its branches will lose their foundation of existence. Therefore, on the whole, prison science has the attribute of criminal law and is an important part of criminal execution law. Therefore, some people advocate that prison law can be divided into broad prison law and narrow prison law, and think that "narrow prison law takes prison legislation and prison execution activities as the research object; In addition to the above contents, the prison law in a broad sense also studies prison history, prison management, prisoners' psychology, prison economic management, prison medical and health care, prison statistics, prison buildings and so on. In this sense, the generalized prison law is equivalent to prison science. " Calling prison science a broad or macro prison law not only reveals the legal nature of prison science in essence, but also shows the difference between prison science and prison law, so it is more scientific.
The attribute of a discipline is determined by the nature of the research object of the discipline. Mao Zedong pointed out in On Contradiction: "Any form of movement contains its own special contradictions. This special contradiction constitutes the special essence that distinguishes one thing from other things. " "The special nature of the movement form of each substance is determined by its own special contradiction." "The difference between scientific research is based on the special contradiction of scientific objects." Although the research field of prison science is very extensive, its core is prison execution, and the contradiction between punishment and being punished, transformation and being transformed in prison execution is the basic contradiction of prison work, which determines the disciplinary nature of prison science. In other words, prison is a national judicial organ, and its basic function is to execute punishment on criminals, while prison science, which studies prison execution, of course belongs to law. Each branch of prison science has its own relatively independent research object, but it is inseparable from the basic research object of prison execution. It only broadens or refines this basic research object from different sides or angles. Although some branches (prison economic management, prison architecture, etc. Don't study prison execution directly, they can't do without prison execution.
With the development of modern science, there is a trend of mutual reference, mutual penetration and mutual integration among disciplines. A large number of principles and methods of natural science and other social sciences have been widely used in legal research, which has effectively promoted the prosperity and development of law, led to the prosperity and development of a series of new branches of law, and gave birth to a series of new branches of law. This is an indisputable fact. However, the diversity of research angles and the application of discipline principles can only reflect the characteristics of the discipline, but cannot determine its attributes. It seems reasonable to divide prison credits into political science, pedagogy and sociology, but they all ignore a fundamental problem, that is, prison is the penalty execution organ of the country, and its basic function is to execute penalties. Therefore, it can not accurately reveal the fundamental attributes of prison science. In addition, the view that prison science is a comprehensive social science has the advantage of fully embodying the characteristics of comprehensiveness and diversity of prison branches, but the specific attributes of prison science are still unclear. Because social science is a science that studies various social phenomena, its scope is extremely wide, including political economy, law, ethics, sociology, education, literature and art, aesthetics and so on. The theory of "comprehensive social science" can't specifically define which prison science belongs to social science, so it needs to be further defined.
Since its birth, prison science in China has been closely integrated with law. At the beginning of the 20th century, in order to meet the needs of the Qing government to improve the prison system, western prison theory and prison system began to be introduced into China, and China prison science came into being. 1906, when the three-year Shi Jing Law School started, prison science was listed as a second-year course. 1907 General Order of the Ministry of Education: Political and legal schools in the capital and provinces offer prison science majors, compile specialized courses in prison science, select higher political and legal students, and specialize in prison science and management skills. According to the records of Japanese prison scientist Kojiro and Jojiro, who taught prison science at that time, Shi Jing Law School opened prison science in the second and third years. At the same time, prison classes were opened. During the period from Long to Nanjing National Government, prison science was designated as a compulsory course of university law and a compulsory subject of judges' examination. It can be seen that prison science in old China existed as a part of the law before liberation. After the founding of New China, various departments of politics and law cancelled the course of prison science one after another. However, many departments have added the content of labor reform to the criminal law curriculum. Therefore, the theory of labor reform has become an organic part of criminal law. In the late 1950s, some political and legal departments also set up separate courses on reeducation through labor. At present, prison science (or prison law) has become a compulsory course in political and legal colleges. This shows that prison science and law. In particular, it is closely related to criminal law.
Third, the disciplinary status of prison science
Prison science is a science with prison law as the basic research object, which belongs to departmental law. Its position in jurisprudence is subordinate to the legal position of prison law. Therefore, to determine the disciplinary status of prison science, we must first clarify the legal status of prison law. In general, a country's criminal legal system consists of three main legal departments: criminal substantive law-criminal law, criminal procedure law-criminal procedure law and criminal execution law, which are called the "three pillars" of the criminal legal system. Judging from the current situation in China, the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law enacted in 1978 were revised in 1997 and 1996 respectively, which basically met the needs of China's criminal justice. 1994 65438+On February 29th, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the People's Republic of China (PRC) Prison Law, which is the main part of the criminal execution law, but it is not the same as the criminal execution law. Because it only stipulates the execution of criminals sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment, life imprisonment and death penalty with a two-year suspension, but does not stipulate the execution of death penalty, criminal detention, public surveillance, deprivation of political rights, fines, confiscation of property and other penalties. Legally speaking, the criminal law and criminal procedure law passed by the National People's Congress belong to the basic law, and the prison law passed by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) belongs to the general law. Obviously, the prison law, as the main part of the criminal execution law, is smaller or lower in coverage, legislative scale and legal norms than the criminal law and the criminal procedure law. This legal status of prison law not only affects the integration of the national criminal legal system, but also directly restricts the status of prison science in law. Judging from the current setting of specialized courses in the law department of our country, criminal law and criminal procedure law are mostly listed as two disciplines, while prison science (or prison law) is listed as the third-level discipline of law. Criminal law and criminal procedure law can be listed as master's and doctoral programs to recruit graduate students, while prison science can only be used as a research direction of criminal law specialty to recruit graduate students. This situation has seriously hindered the discipline development of prison science and the cultivation of professional talents. In my opinion, in order to improve our criminal legal system and build a country ruled by law, it is not only necessary but also feasible to formulate the Criminal Execution Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which is linked with criminal law and criminal procedure law. In other words, the objective conditions for enacting the Criminal Execution Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) are ripe. 1July, 1998, the "Seminar on Legislation Theory of Criminal Execution" was held in Renmin University of China. Experts and scholars attending the meeting had a heated discussion on the necessity, possibility, legislative guiding ideology, framework and basic contents of the Criminal Execution Law of People's Republic of China (PRC). The legislative suggestions put forward at the meeting have attracted the attention of the legislature, the practical departments of politics and law and the academic circles.
There is every reason to believe that in the near future, with the promulgation and implementation of the Criminal Execution Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the criminal execution law will develop into two major disciplines parallel to criminal law and criminal procedure law, and the discipline system of criminal law in China will be more perfect. Prison science, as the main part of criminal execution law, its legal attribute will be more prominent and its disciplinary status will be improved.
Yang Diansheng