Chapter 6.6.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law

6.6. Juvenile treatment systems

Communist offences law, which does not have a penal system, relativizes the distinction between treatment for adults and treatment for juveniles, so there is no need to prepare a separate juvenile law.

However, the extreme policy of treating adults and juveniles completely equally is not adopted, and appropriate exceptions are made for the treatment of juveniles, taking into account the characteristics of juveniles who are still developing.

The basic principle in juvenile treatment is to respect the plasticity (flexibility) that preserves the possibility of personal growth because they are minors. This is not denied as an idea even in the juvenile law, which is based on the penal system, but in the juvenile law, which is established as an exception to the penal system, the more serious the crime, the greater the desire to punish the juvenile offender, and the idea of ​​plasticity tends to be pushed aside.

In contrast, in communist juvenile treatment, respect for plasticity is a guiding principle that is implemented without exception. For this reason, the concept of a "juvenile" is not defined formally by the legal age of adulthood, but is determined according to the biological and medical stage of development.

Therefore, for example, a person who has reached the legal age of adulthood but is considered to be a minor in terms of their developmental stage due to a developmental disorder or intellectual disability will be recognized and treated as a "juvenile."

Conversely, a person who is a minor in terms of the law but is judged to be at a developmental stage equivalent to that of an adult - the closer a minor is to the legal age of adulthood, the more likely they are to be recognized as such - will be recognized and treated as an "adult."

With the concept of juveniles thus made flexible, the treatment given to offenders who are recognized as juveniles is of two types: "educational observation" and "transfer to a correctional school."

"Educational observation" is a treatment that could be considered a juvenile version of probation for juveniles with low antisocial tendencies, but it places more emphasis on education than adult probation.

"Transfer to a correctional school" is a type of restrictive treatment aimed at juveniles with strong antisocial tendencies who are difficult to rehabilitate through "educational observation," but unlike adult correctional facilities, it allows for correction to go hand in hand with academics.

Furthermore, juveniles who are referred to custody for specific problematic behavior (delinquency) that does not constitute a serious offence, or juveniles who have committed a minor first offence such as shoplifting, are removed from the juvenile treatment route and sent directly to the appropriate juvenile welfare institution for welfare protection measures.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.5.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law

6.5. Various correctional treatment systems -part 2-

As mentioned in the previous article, offenders with severe anti-social tendencies who are in great need of correction are given correctional treatment in a correctional facility. There are various policy possibilities for classifying this correctional treatment, but the more simple the treatment system is and the more consideration it gives to human rights, the better.

In this respect, correctional treatment under communist offences law is different from criminal punishment in that it is not a punishment proportional to the severity of the crime, and therefore the period is not presented in numerical terms from the beginning, such as 1 year, 10 years, etc.

However, from a human rights perspective, it is not appropriate to make all treatment indefinite, so a "renewable term system" in which a predetermined legal period is used as one unit = term, and terms are renewed according to the progress of correction seems to be more appropriate.

Here, a term means one unit of a correctional program with a period set in advance by law. The basic unit of term is divided into three ranks, from type 1 to type 3, depending on the subject's level of correctional need, and the length of each term increases in increments of two years with each rank increase.

For example, the term for the type 1 correctional treatment is one year, the term for the type 2 correctional treatment is three years, and the maximum term for the type 3 correctional treatment is five years. These terms will be renewed in line with progress of correction.

In addition to these subclassifications according to the degree of need for correction, there are also further classifications based on whether psychiatric factors such as mental illness are found to have been the cause of the individual offences.

If, as a result of the assessment, the treatment given when these are not found is called the A treatment, and the treatment given when these are found is called the B treatment, the most detailed classification would be to separate each of the types of correctional treatment listed above into the A and the B treatment.

Assuming that even the renewed maximum correctional treatment does not result in progress to a level where rehabilitation is possible, life custodial confinement, which holds a target for life, marks the limit of correctional treatment, but as this is different from a punishment such as life imprisonment, all corrective efforts are not abandoned, and there is still room for social rehabilitation once correction has progressed.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.4.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law

6.4. Various correctional treatment systems -part 1-

Instead of having a penal system, communist criminal law provides various treatment systems to promote the correction and rehabilitation of offenders. These can be classified from several perspectives, but first of all, there is a distinction between treatment of persons and treatment of objects, depending on whether the target is a person or an object.

Of these, treatment of objects is only confiscation. Confiscation is a treatment that encourages rehabilitation by giving a certain admonition by taking away illegally obtained items, and confiscation is sufficient for simple theft such as shoplifting and possession of prohibited items. In addition, monetary deprivation equivalent to a fine cannot exist in a communist society where the monetary economy is abolished.

All types of treatment other than confiscation are treatment of persons. If we classify them from the perspective of the place where the treatment is carried out, they can be divided into restrictive treatment carried out in correctional facilities and non-restrictive treatment carried out in the general society. The selection depends on the need for correction, that is, the degree of progression of antisocial tendencies.

Most offenders do not have very advanced antisocial tendencies and would be eligible for non-custodial treatment. Probation is a typical example of non-custodial treatment, but community service work under probation can also be included.

Another exceptional non-custodial treatment is medical supervision, where offenders who have mental illness but do not have advanced antisocial tendencies are kept under observation while being required to undergo treatment.

In contrast, some people who need intensive correction in correctional facilities are subject to restrictive treatment. This is similar in appearance to the current imprisonment system, but since it is "treatment" and not "punishment," it is simply called "correctional treatment."

Such correctional treatment can be further subdivided depending on the characteristics of the target, such as antisocial tendencies and whether or not they have a mental illness, but this will be discussed in the next article.

By the way, there may be debate as to whether we should have a system of lethal measure as the ultimate mean for incorrigibles who cannot be corrected through normal correctional treatment. Since it is nearly impossible to scientifically or medically prove "incorrigibility," and it is difficult to operate such a system as a fair and error-free measure, the system of lethal measure is ruled out. ＊

However, for those who are found to have antisocial tendencies that are extremely difficult to correct, correctional treatment will be terminated and a system of lifelong detention will be provided in which they will be detained for life for the sake of social defense; however, as correctional science, which researches and develops correctional treatment techniques, advances, it is likely that these individuals will become extremely rare.

＊However, lethal measure shall be given to those who have systematically and led or initiated the commission of crimes against humanity such as genocide; this is an extermination measure carried out based on transnational world law with the aim of thoroughly preventing the recurrence of crimes against humanity (see again footnote in Chapter 6 (1)).

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.3.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law 

6.3. Classification of offences

In classical criminal law, crimes are often classified according to the legal interests that are violated, such as life, body, or property, but this can also be said to be a system that corresponds to the individual correspondence between crimes and punishments that is established in advance.

However, in communist offences law, which determines treatment according to the degree of need for correction, this formal classification method based on the legal interests that are violated is not adopted. Instead, a classification based on the social nature of the offences is adopted.

As such a classification, four types can be distinguished: economic offences, offences related to daily life, offences against the person, and political offences.

Economic offences are offenses that disrupt economic order, and typical examples include production and distribution activities that violate the economic plans that are the pillars of the communist economy, and the illegal occupation of lands that become bona vacantia (ownerless) in a communist society.

Since such economic offences are often committed by organized groups, punitive measures such as forced dissolution or suspension of operations may be imposed on the organizations themselves, in addition to individual perpetrators.

Offences related to daily life are the ones that violate the peace of civic lives, and include a wide range of offences, including property offences such as theft, as well as acts that violate privacy such as trespassing, wiretapping, and voyeurism. Numerically, this category comprises the largest number of offences.

However, many offences that fall into this category are only mildly antisocial, so overall the majority of cases will require only protective treatment such as probation.

Offences against the person are the ones that violate a person's life or body, and include assault, injury, murder, and sexual offences.

In terms of the pathology of the offender, these offences are the most serious and include difficult-to-treat cases in which a severe antisocial personality trait is recognized, so they will likely occupy a central position in correctional treatment.

Political offences are special offences that undermine the political stability of society, such as insurrection or violent sabotage. As the means by which they are committed are any of the three offences listed above, they usually constitute a complex offence.

Offenders in this category often harbor specific ideologies, beliefs, or faith, but they are not guaranteed the special status of so-called "prisoner of conscience," and are given correctional treatment as complex offenders.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.2.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law 

6.2. The Essence of the offence

Under the communist offences law, an offence is not understood as an immoral act that goes against morality, but as an antisocial act that disrupts the order of the community. In that sense, the punishment given to the offender does not have the connotation of moral condemnation, and such condemnation and treatment are essentially separate.

Looking more closely at the essence of an offence, it is understood as a material-mind complex consisting of the physical result of the violation of a legal interest and the offender's intentional act. In this respect, the communist understanding of offences is not biased towards either materialistic act-consequentialism or idealistic actor-psychologism.

In this way, the basic type of offence is an intentional act that causes specific physical damage, and negligent acts are generally not considered to be offences, but gross negligence, which is a severe form of negligence, and professional negligence by professionals who are required to exercise a high degree of care, are perceived as offences because they are second only to intentional acts in their antisocial nature.

On the other hand, defensive counterattacks, such as those typified by self-defense, are natural biological reactions and therefore do not constitute illegal offences in the first place. The same can be said of invasive acts performed properly as legitimate professional acts, such as a doctor's surgical operation. Far from being anti-social, such legitimate professional acts are actually socially beneficial.

The  illegal offences referred to here are to be distinguished from administrative violations. Administrative violations are acts that violate administrative regulatory regulations, and their legal effect is administrative penalties such as the revocation of certain qualifications/licenses or the suspension/revocation of civil rights, not corrective treatment. A typical example is a violation of road traffic laws.

Incidentally, traditional penal systems are embedded with the thesis of responsibility, symbolized by the slogan "No punishment without responsibility." In other words, punishment is considered to be a legal reaction imposed on the basis of the perpetrator's responsibility for past criminal acts.

As a result, those who are mentally incompetent at the time of the crime cannot be held responsible for their crimes, and are treated as legally innocent, which often causes social ripples.

Even in communist offences laws, "responsibility" is not denied, but it is not retrospective responsibility for past actions, but prospective responsibility in which the offender should improve and rehabilitate himself/herself for the future.

Therefore, there is no such thing as no corrective treatment due to incompetence, and even if the influence of mental illness, etc. is recognized as being strongly related to the offence at the time of it, they are not exempt from corrective treatment at all. As will be discussed later, in such cases, therapeutic treatment incorporating psychiatric treatment programs is given. 

However, when it is determined that the mental or intellectual disability of an offender is severe and difficult to cure, and therefore that corrective treatment cannot be expected to have any real effect, the offender may be exempted from treatment due to the impossibility of treatment and may be subject to medical and welfare protection measures, but this would be a highly exceptional case.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.1

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: The System of Offences Law 

6.1. From Criminal Law to Offences Law

A true communist society would not have a penal system. Punishment is the ultimate right-denial measure imposed by state power, which only exists on the premise of state sovereignty, and in a communist society where the state is abolished, it would lose its basis for existence.

On the other hand, if there is a system that professes to be communist but retains the penal system in its entirety, it would not be a true communist society, but would remain a nominal communist society that still retains the framework of the state.

However, the absence of a penal system, of course, does not mean that the solution to crimes will be left to extralegal lynchings or revenge. Instead, a new system will be introduced to correct and rehabilitate criminals instead of punishment.

In this respect, it can be considered that the path of progress from retributive punishment to educational penal punishment, which has already appeared within the framework of the reformist penal system, will be taken a step further, removing the framework of punishment and transforming it into a treatment whose sole purpose is the correction and rehabilitation of criminals.

However, when it comes to "educational punishment," the nature of punishment will still remain, but when it is transformed into treatment whose sole purpose is the correction and rehabilitation of criminals, crimes will no longer be understood as moral "sins" but as serious violations that require special treatment. 

Therefore, in a communist society, there is no "criminal code" that defines crimes and punishments, and a code of law called the "offences code" corresponds to the "criminal code" in the sense that it is a law that defines violations and the treatment for those who commit specific offences. The "offences code" is a law that predetermines what acts constitute violations and prescribes the treatment that can be selected for them and the content of such treatment.

This principle of Nulla poena sine lege scripta (Latin for "no penalty without written law"), is not very different from traditional criminal law under continental law system. However, since the treatment of a offence is determined not by the severity of the legal interest violated by it, but by the degree to which the perpetrator needs to be corrected, the treatment of each offence does not correspond individually in advance. To that extent, the by-the-book formal statutory principle is rejected. 

On the other hand, unlike common law criminal offences under Anglo-American law, it is not permitted under communist law to create new criminal offences through judicial precedents without written laws. In order to ensure predictability, the prior determination of offences by written laws that will be subject to corrective treatment is a fundamental principle of communist offences law.

Note: Ultimately, the only legal crimes that remain - the last crimes, so to speak - are crimes against humanity, such as genocide. However, these types of crimes are dealt with internationally as crimes under international law (treaties) (see my article).

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

chapter 5.5

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 5: The System of Civic Law

5.5. Property rights Law -part 2-

In communist civic law, the law relating to kinship is included in the citizenship law , but inheritance is a system relating to the transfer of a deceased person's property among relatives and other third parties, and is therefore a part of the property rights law.

The capitalist inheritance system promotes a social class system based on the amount of property by allowing property rights to be inherited between relatives (usually between parents and children), but the communist inheritance system is a system aimed at ensuring the livelihood of family members and partners (survivors in a broad sense) left behind. 

There are two types of communist inheritance systems: statutory inheritance, which occurs regardless of the deceased's wishes, and contractual inheritance, which occurs based on the deceased's wishes during his or her lifetime.

Statutory inheritance, which occurs regardless of the deceased's wishes during his or her lifetime, is a system that allows for the inheritance between family members of items related to daily necessities of life that are reserved as private property, and guarantees the convenience and stability of the surviving family members' lives, so the items that are subject to inheritance are limited to assets related to their lives.

The scope of legal heirs is limited to the partner who lived with the deceased at the time of death and other cohabiting relatives. Given the essence of the inheritance system described above, it is usually these cohabiting relatives within this range who need a livelihood security through inheritance.

In addition, when there are multiple legal heirs, inheritance is divided equally among them. This ratio cannot be changed by the will of the deceased during his/her lifetime, and changes and adjustments to the shares can only be made between the heirs after the fact. This is also a consequence of the fact that the main purpose of communist inheritance is to ensure the livelihood of the surviving family.

When inheriting assets to a person (including corporations) other than the heir, the inheritance must be made by a gift (bequest) made by will.

In contractual inheritance, the deceased is free to decide the inherited assets, the scope of the heirs, and the share of the inheritance during his or her lifetime, but this must be based on a document with legal probative power (notarized document); mere verbal promises or wills made privately are invalid.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.