Criminal responsibility and safeguarding of human rights——A comparative perspective

In criminal law,criminal responsibility theory should take responsibility for the safeguarding of human rights of criminals.In Chinese criminal responsibility theory,the factor of dangerousness of criminal,which plays an important role,combined with the consideration of harm to society by criminal,constructs the whole meanings of Chinese criminal responsibility theory.Accordingly the traditional principle of crime-punishment proportion is reconstructed as the principle of crime-responsibility-punishment proportion.However,the practice not only breaches the basic principle of the criminal law and does not accord with the connection of crime and responsibility,but also violates the spirit of the law and the principle of human rights.It is important that we should separate punishment-determining from conviction and the factors of dangerousness of criminal from the system of traditional criminal responsibility.The dangerousness of criminal,however,which can only be taken as a factor of prevention,mitigates or cuts down the punishment decided by criminal responsibility.