論“行政處罰”概念的法律定位──兼評《行政處罰法》關於“行政處罰”的定義

新修訂的《行政處罰法》首次明確行政處罰的定義，但存在三點缺憾：一是定義所反映的是以管理為本位而不是以權利義務為本位；二是將“行政管理秩序”和“行政法律秩序”簡單等同起來，客觀上把受處罰的行為從違反“行政法律秩序”不當擴大到違反“所有行政管理秩序”；三是“減損權益或者增加義務”未能覆蓋行政處罰所帶來的所有“不利後果”。行政處罰是指行政機關在行政法律關係中，對違反行政法律規範而尚不需追究刑事責任的公民、法人或者其他組織，作出制裁性的不利決定。其具有行政性、具體性、外部性、主動性、單方性、決意性、封閉性、不利性和制裁性等特徵，由此可區別於行政強制措施、行政強制執行、糾正違法及行政確認。

The newly revised Administrative Punishment Law clarified the definition of administrative punishment for the first time, but there are three shortcomings: First, the definition reflects the management-oriented rather than rights and obligations-oriented; Second, the ''administrative management order'' and ''administrative law and order'' is simply equated to objectively expand the punishments from violation of ''administrative law and order'' to violation of ''all administrative management orders''; Third, ''derogation of rights or increase of obligations'' fails to cover administrative punishments. All ''adverse consequences'' of administrative punishment refers to the administrative agency making sanctions and unfavorable decisions in administrative legal relations against citizens, legal persons, or other organizations that violate administrative laws and regulations and do not need to be held criminally liable. It has the characteristics of administrative, specific, external, initiative, unilateral, determined, closed, disadvantageous and sanctioned, which can be distinguished from administrative enforcement measures, administrative enforcement, correction of violations and administrative confirmation.