Protecting the Reputation of the Deceased by the Criminal Law:Starting from Article 994 of the Civil Code

Abstract： In recent years， with the attention paid to the legal protection of personality interests， the question of whether the criminal law should protect the reputation of the deceased has provoked people’s thinking. Article 994 of the Civil Code provides a new way of thinking for the study of this question. Whether the criminal law should protect the reputation of the deceased should be judged from the three aspects： legitimacy， necessity and feasibility. Under the principle of unification of legal order， acts of insulting， slandering or otherwise infringing on the reputation of the deceased， where the circumstances are serious， what is damaged is the reputation interests of the deceased， not the right to reputation of the deceased. These acts， together with those infringing on the reputation of living people， cause serious harm to the society and are intolerable by the public. Therefore， it is legitimate to protect the reputation of the deceased through criminal law. The necessity aspect can be demonstrated from the individual， social and normative levels， abandoning the traditional utilitarian views. That is， protecting the reputation of the deceased by criminal law not only highlights the life value of the deceased， encouraging the living to live a worthy life， but also adapts to the development of the social environment and responds to the needs of the public. Moreover， it also conforms to the evolution trend of norms and enhances China’s criminal law network. Based on the analysis in legal dogmatics， the protection benefits concerned in crimes of infringement on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs and theft， insult and intentional destruction of corpses， bones， and ashes do not include the reputation benefits of the deceased. Accordingly， it is impossible to include the reputation of the deceased in the protection scope of the above crimes through the method of legal interpretation. Meanwhile， restricted by the concept of \"citizens\"，\"others\" as defined in the crimes of insult and slander only include living citizens in the normative sense， excluding the deceased. If the \"others\" in Article 246 of the Criminal Law is interpreted as including the deceased， it will inevitably violate the requirements of the interpretation of the criminal law system. Therefore， it is not feasible to protect the reputation of the deceased through the method of legal interpretation. There are two ways to protect the reputation of the deceased through criminal law. One is to amend the first paragraph of Article 246 of the Criminal Law \"the crimes of insult and slander\" and include \"the deceased\" as the object of protection of this crime. The other is to add new clauses to the criminal law， specifically to regulate acts of insulting， slandering or otherwise seriously infringing on the reputation and interests of the deceased. In comparison， the schemes of adding new \"articles\" or \"paragraphs\" are more feasible. Based on the requirements of equal legislation， the statutory punishment for crimes against the reputation of the deceased should be consistent with the crimes of insult and slander， which is \"fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years， criminal detention， public surveillance or deprivation of political rights\". The scope and time limit of the exercising the right of action should refer to Article 994 of the Civil Code. If the reputation and interests of the deceased are infringed upon， the case shall only be handled when the spouse， children and parents of the deceased bring a lawsuit； if the deceased has no spouse or children and the parents have died， the case shall only be handled when other close relatives file a lawsuit， except those seriously endangering social order and national interests. Establishing the crime of infringing on the reputation of the deceased will not harm the citizens’ right to freedom of speech， nor will it conflict with crimes against the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs.

KEY WORDS： reputation of the deceased； insult； slander； unification of legal order； the Civil Code