Exception and its Expansion: Execution by Gunshot in Republican China (1912-1949)

Date(s)： 2025/12/11

Time： 10:00~12:00

Venue： Archives 2nd Conference Hall

Host： Prof. Po-hsi Chen (Assistant research fellow, IMH, AS)

Speaker：Prof. Xie Xin-Zhe (Assistant research fellow, IMH, AS)

Disscussant： Prof. 福田真希（神戶大學大學院法學研究科教授）

Organizer： IMH

Abstract :
Since the relocation of the ROC government to Taiwan, executions were consistently conducted by gunshot. In the Republican era (1912–1949), by contrast, execution by shooting was employed as an exceptional measure under special criminal legislation; the standard statutory method was strangulation/hanging. This article examines the historical development and entrenchment of this exceptionality. It reviews late Qing and early Republican assessments of the practice, reconstructs its institutionalization within the framework of special laws, and analyzes factors such as concerns with bodily integrity, penal humanitarianism, the Western imperialist connotations, and the increasing militarization of state and society, thereby elucidating how the significance of gunshot execution evolved over time. By doing so, this article hopes to shed some lights on the reasons for its eventual adoption as the prevailing method under both ordinary and special law.