Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 法律學系一般生組 === 97 === Abolition of death penalty has been a dispute for a long time between those who support and oppose. Sometimes the controversy even doesn't involve any rational basis but just become a emotional allegation. Taking the value of life as premise, this dissertation tries to discuss the legitimacy about the existence of death penalty. Whether supporting or opposing, what counts is the topic of life right. From the aspects of different legal theories in our Constitution, Criminal law or Criminal procedure law, the author therefore analysed if death penalty should keep on existing in Taiwan's legal system.
From the stand about the maintenance of human dignity and the demonstration of life value, human should exist for himself instead of being materialized. Despite "human dignity" is an abstract term, its core meaning is about the basic respect a human deserves. And a country should know this to protect its people.
Life right is a gifted right, a primary value any modern country should protect. We therefore can infer that the Constitution didn't provide for it purposely because it's absolutely a human right which exists earlier than the country without even mentioning it especially. Furthermore, on the theories about criminal punishment, could prevention or retribution be a firm reason to support the death penalty? Does it work to use heavy penalty to reduce criminal rate? Even the design of criminal procedure may cause the mis-judgement. All above may inevitably make people question the legitimacy about the existence of death penalty.
In addition, this dissertation take a chapter to discuss the protection and compensation system of criminal victims. And late but not least, considering the special political background in Taiwan, we should pay more attention to system problems under the development historically, this is also a basic thought to abolish the death penalty in the future. The author also tries to provide other complementary measures and analysed its feasibility if the abolition may inevitably face the problem about replacement projects.
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