权力修辞向法律话语的转变——展开法治思维与实施法治方式的前提

在人们日常思维和言语表达中，权力修辞占据主导地位。权力场成了影响决策的最主要因素，这既不符合法治的原则要求，也难以成就管理国家与社会的法治方式。从思维方式决定行为方式的角度看，权力修辞向法律话语的转变是展开法治建设的思想条件。权力修辞与政法思维相匹配，重点维护的是管理秩序；法律话语与法治思维相适应，要限制权力，捍卫权利，是与法治建设相适应的法治意识形态，维护的是法律秩序。法律话语与权力修辞的冲突是我国法治建设中的重要问题，从西方法治的经验和中国法治建设的需求看，法律话语能否平衡权力修辞关系到中国法治建设的成败。     

The Rule of Law and Authoritarian Rule: Legal Politics in Sudan

Mark Fathi, Massoud . 2013 . Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan . Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxii + 265. $109.99 cloth, $34.99 paper. Does the rule of law guarantee peace and democracy, as so many people in the development and governance field believe? What are the historical and sociocultural conditions that shape the way rule of law mechanisms work in practice? Mark Massoud's monograph tracing the changing dimensions of the rule of law in Sudan from its colonial period to the present offers an important perspective on these questions, casting doubt on the simple argument that the rule of law produces democracy and peace. Instead, he shows how colonial and authoritarian rulers used the rule of law to consolidate power and legitimate their rule. In Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan, Massoud develops the concept of legal politics, arguing that the way the rule of law works varies with the political system in which it is embedded. He concludes that the forms of legal politics that reinforce the power and authority of legal institutions are more likely to sustain an authoritarian state than to bring democratic rule. His analysis is a valuable caution to those who promote the rule of law as the salvation for all. Taking a sociolegal perspective, he shows how it works in practice.     

Ideals and Practices in the Rule of Law: An Essay on Legal Politics

Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2013 . Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 277. Paper $34.99. This essay responds to the three commentators in the symposium on my book, Law's Fragile State, by describing the sociolegal study of the rule of law as an investigation into both a set of ideals (the rule of law as a normative question) and a set of practices (the rule of law as an empirical question). Studying the rule of law involves understanding the contingent nature of its ideals as well as investigating the actual work that lawyers, judges, state officials, aid workers, activists, and others have done in specific contexts to promote legal remedies to social or political ills. These overlapping layers of the study of the rule of law—ideals and practices, normative and empirical—provide a sociolegal framework for understanding the successes and failures of legal work and, ultimately, how citizens experience state power in democratic and nondemocratic societies alike.     

论新时代中国环境法学研究的转型

新时代我国社会的主要矛盾、环境法治客观条件与话语体系发生深刻变化,环境法学研究须予以适时因应。环境法学的核心范畴、研究方法与基本话语廓清了新时代环境法学研究格局。作为环境法学研究逻辑起点和环境法律现象认知的中介概念--核心范畴及其建构须对新时代的转型需求予以回应,从一元的权利或义务本位走向二元的"权利-义务"范畴。环境法治客观条件的变化凸显环境法律制度的体系化需求,这意味着环境法学研究方法须对环境法律制度体系化予以关照,环境法学方法本身也应走向科学化与层次化。中国环境法学研究要走出西方话语禁锢,实现话语自觉,建构中国学术话语权,必然需要回归到中国环境法学话语的主体性特征,走向中国环境法治问题的田野,充分理解和利用中国环境法治资源,坚持开放并蓄的话语立场。     

“A State in the disguise of a Merchant”: Tech Leviathans and the rule of law

The rule of law is a check on power, requiring equal subjection of everyone to the law, irrespective of wealth or status. Power is not the exclusive preserve of the state, however, especially where rivalled by private entities that rise, in effect, above the law. Today’s tech giants throw the rule of law out of kilter by assuming the trappings of the state— one even has its own “supreme court”— while shunning its accountability. They seek to dissuade, capture and evade any attempt by the state to mitigate the harms arising from their business models. Policy makers scrambling for innovative legislative techniques are unlikely to repair the consequences of extreme concentration of corporate power so long as underlying social injustices and over-deference in democratic institutions go unchallenged. Leviathan, whether in the form of govern mentor corporation, cannot coexist with the rule of law.     

习近平法治思想对法治基本价值理念的传承与发展

习近平法治思想对法治的基本价值、理念进行了本土化诠释、时代化丰富和理论性创新。其立足我国国情民意和新时代历史方位,对人民民主、宪法法律至上、公平正义、人权保障、权力监督、法律平等等法治基本价值话语作了深层思考与理论凝练,传承发展了我们党长期以来形成的法治价值理念,揭露了西方法治价值理论的缺陷和偏颇,体现了法治价值普遍性与特殊性的统一,为全面依法治国、建设法治中国提供了价值导向和遵循。深入研究习近平关于法治价值的重要论述意义重大,有利于全面深刻理解习近平法治思想的真谛,有利于提升习近平法治思想的感召力与实践力,有利于增强中国特色社会主义法治理论在国际社会的话语权。     

The New Legal Realism and The Realist View of Law

New legal realism (NLR) furthers the legal realist legacy by focusing attention on both the pertinent social science and the craft that typifies legal discourse and legal institutions. NLR's globalized ambitions also highlight the potential of a nonstatist view of law. The realist view of law raises three challenges facing NLR: identifying the “lingua franca” of law as an academic discipline within which NLR insights on translation and synthesis should be situated; conceptualizing NLR's focus on bottom‐up investigation, so that it does not defy the rule of law; and recognizing the normative underpinning for NLR's reformist impulse.     

Discourse theory of law in times of populism

Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory of law has shaped debates on what we consider to be legitimate law. This contribution will firstly identify the Zeitgeist in which discourse theory emerged. Secondly, it points out the emancipatory potential of law that discourse theory has helped us to understand, both on a domestic and a transnational level. Thirdly, the paper turns to discuss two recent challenges for the discourse theory of law, namely (a) the realities of social power that undermine and contradict its promises, and (b) the rise of populism, which places the core normative assumptions of discourse theory in doubt.     

In courts we trust,or should we? Judicial independence as the precondition for the effectiveness of EU law

The present article argues that the EU possesses an arsenal of tools to address dissuasively rule of law problems in the Member States. This shows the double nature of the EU's separation of powers problem. Whereas some states suffer from rule of law decline and a lack of limitation of governmental powers, there is a risk of the crumbling of separation of powers at the EU level, too, where institutions fail to adequately address rule of law violations. Against the EU institutions' lack of forceful action towards rule of law backsliding, domestic courts try to protect judicial independence increasingly via preliminary references. Also, they attempt preventing the proliferation of the consequences of rule of law decline via judicial cooperation in the mutual trust/mutual recognition domain. This article explores to what extent preliminary rulings can make up for the failure to use adequate EU tools of rule of law enforcement.     

Transitional Shortcuts to Justice and National Identity

National legal systems undergo profound changes when they are confronted with undemocratic power seizure. The same occurs when they experience a transition (back) to democracy. Thus far, these two types of transition have been studied in relative isolation. Nevertheless, it seems that both undemocratic usurpers and democratizing regimes affect the role of fundamental rule‐of‐law principles in similar ways. This article compares both types of transition and suggests that pragmatism and national identity are the driving forces behind similar legal mechanisms, affecting legal principles, in those two forms of transition. Drawing on Carl Schmitt's idea of the state of exception and Ruti Teitel's work on transitional justice, this article shows that both kinds of transition share the same fundamental legal structure.     

中国法学的话语流变考略

改革开放以来,中国法学超越了法律斗争论、工具论和政策论的话语体系,表现出从"革命到改革"、从"左右之争"到"古今中西之争"的演进轨迹。从"公民在法律面前人人平等"、"要法治,不要人治"、"法是阶级性与社会性的统一"、"法要以权利为本位"、"法学需要质变式改革"到法律文化论、法律移植论、本土资源论,三十年话语流变史艰难曲折地从法学之外走向法学之内,最终确立了法治国家话语主导权。在学术理路、发展内涵和思想渊源上,中国法学的话语流变从外在分裂走向内在统一;从"批斗封建文化"到"文化热",走向"以文化作为方法";从"排斥西方"到"接纳西方",走向"反思西方",其中也透射出中国法学乃至国家法治走向成熟的希望。     

权利的另一个成本:国家认证及其西方经验

国家认证的西方经验表明,认证是权利的另一种成本,是建构良好的法治和治理秩序的必要条件,是一项政府应该提供的公共物品。国家认证的公共性,体现在它几乎是所有国家制度的前提,因此堪称国家治理体系的"基础的基础"。在建设法治国家、税收国家、福利国家和监管国家的过程中,现代国家需要不断增强其认证能力,让多数人进入认证体系,从而加快国家基本制度建设的进程,提升法律与政策的有效性,最大限度地降低国家沟通国民的中间成本,逐步实现关注绝大多数人的期望并为绝大多数人服务的良治状态。认证这种"治理术"在发达国家的制度化和例行化,应当为追求民主法治的人们所正视。     

执政党领导法治建设合法性分析

政治合法性是对价值正义性的一种承认,同时构成了对公共机构及其权力行为正当性的评价标准。中国共产党在西方话语意义上使用合法性概念审视自身执政行为,彰显了高度的自信。对执政党主体地位和自身条件合法性的考察,是党领导法治建设合法性分析的前置性工作;而通过将"合法性指数"概念和权利-义务分析框架引入并运用于对中国共产党领导法治建设行为的合法性评价,则为系统深入地阐释中共执政行为的政治价值指向提供了科学标准和科学模式,为执政党领导中国法治建设注入了反思性向度,这是助力执政党及其领导的法治建设事业进一步走向更大成功的重要理论拓展。     

Loyal Opposition: Minorities and State Law

This essay on Mitra Sharafi's Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772–1947 (2014) focuses on the relationship between certain minorities and the law of the state. It seeks to expand the discussion found in Sharafi's book in three directions: first, by comparing the attitude of Parsis in South Asia to the law of the state with the attitude of German Jewish immigrants in mandatory Palestine and Israel to state law; second, by asking whether the Parsis' embracing of state law was linked to their economic success; and, finally, by pointing to the nature of law itself as a “minority discourse.”     

国家与社会：法哲学研究范式的批判与重建

本文在分析了近代市民社会与政治国家的三种典型的理论范式的基础上 ,理性分析了近代市民社会与政治国家相互分离和二元对立的关系范式的社会机理 ,探讨了这一近代法哲学分析范式在当代中国的适用性问题 ,并从我国社会主义市场经济的特点出发 ,提出应当重建市民社会与政治国家的分析范式 ,建立我国国家与社会之间的互动机制 ,并将这种互动机制作为法治生成的真正的社会基础 ,实现我国市民社会的相对独立和自治、国家权力的科学配置和监控、国家与社会关系之法治整合。     

依宪执政：全面落实依法治国基本方略的战略举措

依法执政和依宪执政的提出,是改革开放三十年中国特色社会主义民主法治建设的重大进展。在新的历史时期,依宪执政更是全面落实依法治国基本方略的战略举措。依宪执政州确了“全面落实依法治国基本方略,加快建设社会主义法治国家”的目标、方针、原则、途径和任务等具体要求,而落实依宪执政的关键环节,就是运用宪法思维和宪政体制执政。     

Staring into the abyss: A crisis of the rule of law in the EU

Acceptance of the meaning, operation and enforcement of the rule of law in the EU by its Member States is critical to the Union's legitimacy. Any perceived or real crisis in the rule of law thus merits careful consideration. This article focuses on how a crisis in the rule of law occurred within the EU and how the intended ambiguity of the rule of law has entrenched this crisis. This article argues that the primary cause of the crisis has been the EU's development of a unique ideation of the rule of law ‐ as a constitutional norm, policy instrument and value ‐ that 'hollowed out' the rule of law from a constitutional principle to an expedient policy tool. The EU institutions have entrenched the crisis in the rule of law and then tried to manage the chasm between what it deems as respect for the rule of law and certain Member States' conduct.     

Punishment and Welfare:

This paper will attempt to situate the current discourse on 'crack pregnancies' within the context of a broader regulatory discourse.' It will argue that defining and locating state intervention solely within the confines of formal legal discourse not only privileges the criminal law, but (1) occludes recognition of the ways in which regulation and control are effected by administrative law and welfare policy and (2) fails to specify the role of the welfare state in the construction and reproduction of dominant cultural norms of womanhood and mothering. The paper draws on feminist literature and fieldwork-in-progress to suggest that many of these women are already subject to substantial mechanisms of social control and cultural reproduction. In concluding, it is suggested that the construction of this debate to date has served to deflect attention away from the fissures of gender, race and class that render these women's lives as publicly problematic.     

A global and historical exploration: Legislative reform in Muslim family laws in Muslim-majority versus Muslim-minority countries

Thirty-five Muslim-majority and 18 Muslim-minority countries formally integrate Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) into their legal systems and enforce them through state courts. Both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority governments have undertaken legislative reforms to alleviate the effects of religious laws on fundamental human rights, increase accountability and accessibility, and strengthen the rule of law within their MFL systems. Extant literature is silent on whether MFLs are more reformed or more human rights and the rule of law compliant in Muslim-majority or Muslim-minority countries. Utilizing a novel methodological tool, the MFL Index, this exploratory article surveys cross-national and historical trends in MFL reform (1946–2016). It shows that Muslim-majority and -minority governments have opted for different forms of legislative reform. Muslim-majority countries favored substantive reform, while Muslim-minority states prioritized exit reforms. The type and extent of reform were strongly associated with colonial heritage, secularism, women's activism, ethnoreligious diversity, and prevailing multicultural arrangements. These findings have implications for studying multicultural theory, human/women's rights, and democratization in the Muslim world and beyond.     

依法治国与推进国家治理现代化

依法治国与国家治理是相互作用、相辅相成的关系。依法治国是推进国家治理现代化的重要内容和主要途径,而推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,核心是要推进国家治理法治化。坚持和实行依法治国,可以从宪法、法治、立法、依法执政等多方面推进国家治理现代化和法治化。为此,应当根据推进国家治理现代化的改革总目标,强化法治权威和良法善治,加强人民代表大会制度建设,完善法律体系,加强宪法和法律实施,推行法治建设指标体系,在加快建设法治中国进程中推进国家治理现代化。