A Study on the Repeatable Evaluation and Application of Aggravating Circumstances for the Crime of offering bribes

Abstract

Among the seven aggravating circumstances newly added by the Amendment (XII) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the * Amendment (XII) to the Criminal Law*), some overlap with the elements for establishing the Crime of offering bribes as defined in judicial interpretations; however, they may still be applied as elements for establishing the crime. The principle of prohibiting repeatable evaluation prohibits evaluating the same facts more than once based on the same criteria during both the conviction and sentencing phases.When elements for conviction overlap with aggravating circumstances, if the two evaluations serve different normative purposes, their concurrent application does not violate the principle against double evaluation; when multiple aggravating circumstances overlap, if they correspond to different facts or different aspects of the same fact, their concurrent application is justified; conversely, if multiple circumstances substantially serve the same normative protective purpose, they should be evaluated collectively to avoid double evaluation.