威權消逝，死刑長存？—死刑存廢議題之脈絡分析

Abstract

死刑制度作為威權統治時期重要之鞏固權力工具，並因威權政府之恣意濫用嚴重侵害人權，在民主轉型後無異應作為轉型正義之課題。第三波民主化浪潮的國家中，不乏有新興的反對勢力透過民主轉型帶來的強大政治、經濟轉變或國際勢力介入，在推翻威權政府之同時連帶廢除死刑制度。而台灣的民主轉型脈絡，死刑制度未能全面性的檢討或列於轉型正義的處理清單，背後原因，值得探究。 即使未能於民主轉型檢討死刑制度，民主化所帶來保障人權意識、政府部門功能轉變、民眾直接參與政治事務等，同樣也可以作為重新檢討死刑制度的契機。本文所欲探究的問題，除了台灣為何錯過民主轉型時期的廢死契機外，在民主轉型的過程中，政治部門與公民社會是如何透過民主體制下的機制就死刑制度展開對話，現今的死刑制度如何形成，未來又何去何從？ 分析上，本文以民主化與憲法變遷，將台灣的民主化歷程切分為威權統治、憲政轉型與跨國憲政時期，且在每個時期分別聚焦於行政之死刑執行人數、立法之死刑罪名數修正、司法之死刑裁判人數與公民社會之廢死運動，試圖解釋死刑制度變化的原因。初步研究發現，台灣因威權政府帶領民主化，失去在民主轉型初期檢討死刑制度之誘因；民主化後也缺少廢除死刑之強烈助力與誘因，在這種情形下，台灣較可能採取逐漸廢死方式，值得期待的是，跨國憲政時期下國際人權法為檢驗死刑制度提供更高的標準，這一股國際勢力則有望透過廢死運動的主張，持續作為監督與要求政府部門，在逐步廢除死刑制度道路上扮演重要動能。

The imposition of death penalty is often considered a means of societal control by the authoritarian regimes. Recent developments have shown that the legitimacy of both the death penalty per se and the sentencing scheme would be reconsidered after the political transition. However, the death penalty was not reconsidered after Taiwan’s democratization. As human rights protection has become one of the main features of democracy, it is intriguing to find how have the government and public society dealt with death penalty issues in different moments of political changes. The essay aims to find the contextual interpretation of death penalty in terms of democratic transition and tries to find the reason why the death penalty still exists in Taiwan. This essay first focuses on several factors related to abolishment of death penalty, including the numbers of executions, judgments, laws and social movements in different stage of democratization, representing different political and social contexts. Then the essay indicates that two driving forces, democratization and constitutionalism, have played important roles in reviewing death penalty in Taiwan’s context. Given that the authoritarian regime was still in power in democratic transition, it was hard for Taiwan to abolish death penalty at that time. Although Taiwan government currently still has no incentive to abolish death penalty after democratization, ICCPR and ICESCR may bring a new breeze in Taiwan and provide new standards in reviewing the legitimacy of the death penalty.