Amendments to the Penal Code: Many new points mentioned

(Baonghean) - On March 15, the Ministry of Justice held a national online conference to review the implementation of the 1999 Penal Code. This is a large-scale conference to comprehensively assess the implementation of the Penal Code and lay the foundation for amending this law in the coming time. It can be said that no law has a greater impact on people than the criminal law - an area that can have direct consequences that determine life. Therefore, amending the Penal Code is extremely important.

Since its inception, the 1999 Penal Code has been a sharp tool of the State in managing society, preventing and fighting crime, maintaining political security, social order and safety, protecting the interests of citizens, organizations and the State. It can be affirmed that the Penal Code has stipulated in a relatively systematic and comprehensive manner the general principles and regulations of criminal policy, criminalized many acts dangerous to society and determined a fairly comprehensive and scientific system of penalties. However, in recent years, the country's situation has undergone strong and significant changes, and the Penal Code has revealed many limitations and inadequacies. In particular, last year, the National Assembly passed the 2013 Constitution, so the need to amend the Penal Code has become even more urgent.

Colonel Nguyen Huu Cau - Deputy Director of the Provincial Police Department presented a speech at the online conference. Photo: Nhat Lan

This amendment focuses on a number of socially dangerous acts that have not been included in the Penal Code, such as: criminal liability of legal entities; criminalization of participation in organized crime groups and corruption; classification of crimes; clarification of quantitative issues related to the penalty framework; clarification of the source of the Penal Code, according to which crimes and penalties are mainly regulated in the Penal Code but must also be regulated in other codes; criminal policy for minors; research on the application of suspended sentences and fines to increase deterrence and promote effectiveness; especially research on the abolition of a number of death penalty crimes, demonstrating the humane and lenient policies of the Party and State and responding to the common humanity of the world.

The viewpoints and major orientations for amending the Penal Code are to closely follow Resolution 48/NQ-TU and Resolution 49/NQ-TU of the Politburo and to study the spirit and content of the 2013 Constitution to build a Penal Code Project that not only ensures punishment but also ensures humanity. In addition to amending the shortcomings and limitations in specific provisions of the current Penal Code, it is necessary to focus on studying major issues such as: provisions on crimes and penalties in a number of specialized laws; criminal responsibility of legal entities for a number of specific crimes, especially economic crimes; reducing the possibility of applying prison sentences, expanding the scope of application of non-custodial penalties; limiting the scope of application of the death penalty; further perfecting criminal policies for minors; Criminalizing socially dangerous acts and decriminalizing a number of crimes prescribed in the current Penal Code are no longer suitable to the conditions of economic and social development and integration.

The amendment of the Penal Code is part of the plan to implement the 2013 amended Constitution. Therefore, the amended law must be built and perfected in the spirit of the new Constitution, especially to effectively protect human rights, basic citizen rights, promote prevention effectiveness and benevolence in handling criminals; there must be a mechanism to encourage and motivate people to actively participate in preventing and fighting crimes, protecting themselves and protecting the rights of others.

Affirming the idea of ​​promoting human rights and humanitarian factors set out in this law amendment, the Draft Revised Penal Code is expected to supplement the conditions for applying the death penalty to limit the possibility of applying this penalty to the maximum extent. The death penalty will only be applied to a few cases of particularly serious crimes of a barbaric and brutal nature that violate human life (such as brutal murder, robbery, rape, etc.); threatening the survival of the State (violating national security, etc.); seriously threatening social order and safety and the development of the race (drugs); crimes of a global nature, threatening international peace and security (terrorism, corruption, crimes against humanity, war, etc.). Some opinions believe that maintaining the death penalty in the current period is very necessary, reflecting the State's criminal policy in the current period.

Many developed countries continue to maintain the death penalty but consider it a self-defense measure, mainly applying only life imprisonment (life imprisonment without reduction of sentence). On the other hand, research is needed to expand the scope of application of non-custodial penalties such as fines and non-custodial reform to ensure humanity in criminal policy. This is reflected first in the reduction of harsh penalties for criminals and reduction of prison sentences for criminals. Accordingly, to reduce the possibility of applying prison sentences, it is necessary to amend the law in the direction of stipulating that prison sentences are mainly applied to very serious and especially serious crimes. For serious or less serious crimes, this penalty should only be applied when it is considered that if the offender is left in society, he will continue to cause harm to society. In the remaining cases, penalties other than deprivation of liberty will be considered.

LawyerTrong Hai