Legal Security from the Point of View of the Philosophy of Law

Abstract. The author analyses the concept of legal security from its historical evolution to its main structural aspects. In the first part he argues that legal security is a historical and cultural concept of the modern world. He considers a series of factors which lead from the general concept of security generated by an ideological monism and the social rigidity characterizing the Middle Ages to the concept of legal security protected by the legal monism of the modern state, where legal security, understood as formal or procedural justice, has become a principle inspiring the entire legal system. Then he considers legal security in the social state as the expression of the relationship between man and his social needs. In the second part the author makes a structural analysis of the concept of legal security in a modern legal order, identifying the different spheres in which it can be found: state,—focusing on procedural guarantees as limits to power—, law—considering the internal functioning of the legal system—, society—stressing the effects of the action of the social state on the idea of legal security.     

Internal Market Rationality,Private Law and the Direction of the Union: Resuscitating the Market as the Object of the Political

This paper proposes a concept of ‘internal market rationality’ for the analysis of the political, legal and economic consequences of European integration. Internal market rationality refers to a specific pattern of political action in the field of internal market, which has emerged gradually due to the confluence of three main factors: first, the EU's functional institutional design; second, the processes of post‐national juridification; and third, a more contingent influence of ideas. In the interplay of those three factors, the interpretation of internal market has become overdetermined, restricting thereby the space of (democratic) politics in its regulation. This reification of internal market rationality has had a direct influence on the content of European law, as I demonstrate through the example of European private law. Internal market rationality has transformed the very concept of justice underpinning private law, the concept of the person or subject of law, the (re)distributive pattern of private law as well as the normative basis on which private law stands. I argue, finally, that a close examination of the legal, institutional and ideological arrangement behind internal market rationality provides clues for the democratisation of the EU.     

Practical Reason and Legislation

Abstract
The author's starting point is Bobbio's theoretical approach to the problems of the relations between law and reason. He then appraises the meanings of reason and the concept of theoretical and practical rationality in the application of law. He examines the complex problem of the rationality of legislation and distinguishes five levels of rationality.     

Aristotle's Forms of Justice

Abstract. In Aristotle's account, corrective and distributive justice are not (as they are today) particular substantive ideals, but are rather the formal patterns that inhere in interactions and in the legal arrangements that regulate them. Corrective and distributive justice are the structures of ordering internal to transactions and distributions, respectively. The Aristotelian. forms of justice thus constitute the rationality immanent to the relation ships of mutually external beings. This article stresses Aristotle's formalism, contrasting it to modem instrumental conceptions of legal rationality, and defending it against Kelsen's allegations of emptiness. The article concludes with the suggestion that corrective justice, as the conceptual pattern that makes private law what it is, can be considered the formal and final cause of private law.     

私人自治与私法品性

我国学界普遍忽视私人自治与作为其生存环境与运行背景的私法之间的关系。私人自治与私法品性之间具有密切关联。由于实行私人自治原则,私法呈现出抽象性、目的独立性、否定性、程序性、形式性、自治性、工具理性等形式主义品性。由私人自治在民法中的基石性地位所决定,形式主义品性在私法中居于主导地位。民事立法应坚守形式主义品性,若必须创设例外,应有正当充分的理由。中国现行民法还存在着上述诸品性程度不高的缺憾,形式主义品性有待提升。     

反思“商事通则”立法——从商法形式理性出发

商法形式理性的特征是商法的确定性、可预测与可计量。商法的形式理性体现为规则化与内在体系化。商法典并非商法形式理性的必然结果,大陆法系商法的形式理性与英美法系相同。＂商事通则＂并不是对民商合一与民商分立的超越,而是实质上的民商分立,其体系与内容与大陆法系国家的商法典并无二致。我们应该反对商法的形式主义,坚持实质主义的民商分立,冷静对待＂商事通则＂立法,完善商法各单行法律、法规。     

Natural Law and Normative Inclinations

Natural law ethics holds that practical rationality consists in engaging in non‐defective ways with a range of fundamental goods. These basic goods are characteristically presented as reflecting the natural properties of humans, but the details of this picture vary widely. This article argues that natural law ethics can usefully be understood as a type of dispositional theory of value, which identifies the basic goods with those objectives that humans are characteristically disposed to pursue and value for their own sake. Natural law theories of practical rationality can then be understood as attempts to capture the principles that would govern engagement with the basic goods under ideal conditions. The article begins by offering an account of normative inclinations as human dispositions both to act in certain ways and to believe that the actions are worthwhile or required. It then explores the implications of this account for natural law ethics, discussing the role of the basic goods in practical rationality, whether the goods may change over time and the connection between the goods and human nature.     

西方中世纪的神学法治理念

当日尔曼人用粗陋的习惯和蒙昧的意识取代了罗马人的法制和法治观念的时候,基督教教会却一直保存这一文明规则和观念。在教会抑制王权的斗争中,基督教神学不仅重申着法律的理性、正义和权威的思想,而且从中衍生出法律神圣、权力服从法律、法律至上等理念。这些理念,最终经阿奎那而演绎成了系统的神学法治学说。     

论法律形式合理性的十个问题

法律制度的理性化表现在两个方面,一为实质合理化,一为形式合理化。法治原则在司法领域必然意味着形式合理性的优先,即,在司法过程中,当个案处理结果的实质合理性与法律本身的形式合理性可以两全时,司法者应当而且必须兼顾这两种价值,在司法裁判中同时实现个案中的实质合理性与法律的形式合理性;然而,当实质合理性与形式合理性发生不可两全的矛盾而不得不有所牺牲时,司法裁判则应当以优先实现形式合理性为原则,以牺牲形式合理性为例外。无论是对于持有社会本位价值观念的人们而言,还是对于持有个人本位价值观念的人们而言,只要他们遵循理性的指引来选择达成目的的手段,以优先实现形式合理性为原则、以牺牲形式合理性为例外的司法公正,都是唯一合理的选项。     

论法律与理性

理性作为非权力话语 ,是法律人自我理解的前提 ,而自我理解又是法律人自我存在的依据。法的规律性认识可以通过运用人的本能的理性来获得 ,理性已不单是一个人的理性能力问题 ,而涉及主体相互间的语言沟通、交涉与理解的架构。我们对法的理性的理解 ,通常是从认知理性与道德或实践理性两种意义上来认识与讨论的。人们对法与理性的认识不是被动意义上的认识 ,而是一种解放性、扬弃性的认识。所以 ,法的理性还是一种批判能力。法的信仰不能超越理性。信仰一旦超越理性、为信仰服务 ,则将导致理性丧失生命。如果我们不能正视或无力回应当前理性所面临的各种各样的问题 ,那么 ,我们就无法切实地为我国法治建设提供充分而有效的理论支持。     

知识产权的制度风险与法律控制

在风险社会的语境中,知识产权法是一种制度文明,也是一种可能存在的制度风险。诸如文化风险、生态风险、基因技术风险、网络风险等,主要是知识产权制度的"内生性"风险。如何克服现行知识产权法律制度和法律秩序的先天性缺陷和潜在危机,提高风险意识,增强风险识别能力,寻求风险治理机制,是国际知识产权界共同面临的时代问题。知识产权制度风险的法律治理必须秉持价值理性与工具理性统一、权利观念与责任观念统一、法律控制与技术规制统一等理念,并通过传统知识保护、公共领域保留、开放存取及知识共享协议、知识创新奖励等制度的替代和补充,形成一个应对风险社会的观念体系和制度系统。这是应对知识产权制度风险的法律举措,也是实现知识产权制度价值目标的法律变革路径。     

行政组织法视角下环境标准制度的反思与完善

我国环境标准制度的症结是自我规制理念的缺失。德国法带来的启示是强化由半官方的中间组织主导环境标准的制修订工作。因而,在行政组织法和程序法上,应实现由标准化技术委员会或专家组承担起草审查工作、以公众理性制衡专家理性、保障决策者的中立性、促成公众积极参与并确立政府对程序的监督。如此改革后,环境标准虽不是国家法规范,但仍可对环境执法和司法审判发挥一定指引作用。     

Critical Rationalism: The Problem of Method in Social Sciences and Law*

Abstract. The author characterizes the model of rationality devised by critical rationalism in opposition to the classic model of rationality and as an alternative to this. He illustrates and criticizes the trichotomous theory of knowledge which, going back to Max Scheler, is received in a secularized version by Habermas and Apel, also under the influence of the hermeneutic tradition of Heidegger and Gadamer and of the so-called “critical theory” of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. The author criticizes historicism as it expects to be an alternative to naturalism and not to make use of the method based on scientific laws. The author proposes as an example of technological social science the model developed in economics starting from Adam Smith. With regard to legal theories, natural law is rejected because of its sociomorphic cosmology. It is proposed that legal science as social technology has two parts. One part aims at efficient interpretations of valid law (for the space-time region concerned) and a second part aims at the construction of efficient norms for the modification of valid law by legislation     

Social Constructionism and Criminology: Traditions,Problems and Possibilities

Over the last twenty years, the prison system, border controls, crime prevention programmes, anti‐terror measures and private security companies have expanded within Europe. This article discusses some of the implications. It will be argued that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the manner in which state‐sanctioned force is employed. The distinction between what is criminal, to be dealt with by the justice system, and what creates a ‘perception of security’—formerly to be dealt with by social policy—is being eroded at both macro‐ (‘war on terror’) and micro‐ (‘public order’) levels. The rule of law is giving way to a security mentality, where force is employed on the basis of risk assessments. Social problems are re‐interpreted as security threats, and met with measures recreating the original threats. This gives the policy field a distinctive rationality of its own.     

Law's Allure and the Power of Path-Dependent Legal Ideas

Gordon Silverstein's Law's Allure (2009) advances a two-part thesis on the power of legal ideas. The first is that legal precedents establish the ideological baselines on which legislative and bureaucratic policies are developed. Silverstein amply demonstrates the validity of this thesis. The second is that by establishing ideological baselines, legal precedents contribute to a version of path dependency (or the idea that early choices determine long-term developments) that is significantly more constraining than other forms of institutional entrenchment. Put simply, law shackles creativity in politics. This thesis I do not find persuasive, in part because Silverstein offers little evidence for it and in part because a growing body of literature suggests the contrary: the cross-fertilization of ideas from one field to another—law to politics, for instance—contributes to, rather than retards, creative change. Nonetheless, while its broader ambitions are not satisfied, Law's Allure's narrow thesis—that precedent profoundly shapes policy development—is important and worthy of a major book in itself.     

Genealogy and Jurisprudence: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Social Scientification of Law

In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche presents a history of metaphysics that can also be read as a history of jurisprudence. Nietzsche shows how—via Platonism, Christendom, Kantianism, and utilitarianism—the “real” or “true” world of ideals gives way to an “apparent” phenomenal world that is itself ultimately brought into question. This article shows how 20th-century legal thought, broadly construed, also moves away from “ideals” of law toward an understanding of law as observable social phenomena. It suggests that the move to the “apparent” world in legal thought raises questions similar to those raised by Nietzsche's work: Does sociological law point to a nihilistic destruction of the legal tradition or to a joyous possibility of overcoming that tradition?     

数学与西方法律的形式化：以自然法为视角

柏拉图理念论的形成数学起了关键的作用。理念论把世界分为理念世界和可感世界,从而形成哲学两重世界。柏拉图的哲学两重世界对西方哲学的影响非常大,西方许多哲学大家都受过柏拉图理念论的影响。哲学两重世界的理论影响了自然法,使自然法成为了形式法,对实定法具有约束作用,这对西方法律形式合理性的形成具有重要影响。     

Vladimir Shapoval: "The CEC Is Destined to Be the Scapegoat"

"The law is harsh, but it is the law"—the well-known ancient Roman saying is entirely suitable as a brief synopsis of the Lb.ua interview with the chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Vladimir Shapoval.

"Any electoral legislation, I emphasize, any, will always be 95 percent the product of political expediency. Always. This way gives them an advantage—so be it." This is how he calmly parried my emotional "How can the advantage of the strong be codified in the law (!), and the weak essentially have no chance? What can you do, how can it be?" "All this ‘whining and crying,’ say, the law is this and that in substance, I do not accept it. The laws were adopted—so we will follow them. You cannot get away from it," he added.

It might seem to someone who does not know Vladimir Nikolaevich that the chief vote-counting official is being clever, "covering up" the "distortions" of the authorities "at the local level." He is in fact speaking frankly. The chairman of the Central Election Commission formed on the eve of the 2007 preterm parliamentary elections by a "coalition"—a retired Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) justice, and a doctor of legal sciences who is an active member of the High Council of Justice (HCJ), he can permit himself that. Shapoval contrives to call things by their names: "How the law is written is another matter. And its parts are written abominably," he states bluntly.

In view of this, my discussion with Shapoval—formally tied to the start of a local elections campaign—went far beyond the bounds of a discussion of the legislation on this topic, and even the specifics of the campaign. The more so as I had already discussed this in detail with CEC Deputy Chairman Andrei Magera. Vladimir Nikolaevich, without concealing his indignation, related just what the HCJ is really afraid of (and it turned out it was not at all, or more precisely not only, what they are portraying it to be). Relying on nine years of experience as a CCU justice, he elucidated the risks of the invalidation of the 2004 constitutional reform by the current Constitutional Court—"only those who have face can lose it." Sketching out the situation in the body politic, he summed up, "If the Party of Regions (PoR) does not win the local elections, many questions will arise."     

Why Do Labour Lawyers Ignore the Question of Social Justice in European Contract Law?

Abstract: Over recent years, a heated debate about social justice in European contract law has been taking place. Great emphasis is placed on ideological assumptions. For example, the over‐individualistic interpretation of European private law, its market‐led orientation and the insufficient attention paid to the idea of the protection of the weaker party. This discussion considers the traditional conflict between the meta‐principles of market‐oriented efficiency and solidarity‐based action. The whole debate, it seems to me, now calls for a more rules‐based approach. In endeavouring to validate such an approach, this article starts by illustrating the various facets connected to the theme of ‘European contract law’. Then as a preliminary step, I shall briefly examine the question as to why labour lawyers have remained silent and take no part in the discussion on European social contract law. There is ample reason to believe that the contrary is necessary. It has been generally acknowledged that labour contracts are not outside private law—individual contract law in particular—and that it represents one of the most important examples of long term incomplete contracts. The idea of labour law as autonomous is dead and it appears simple to promote the reintegration of labour law into modern social contract law. In the context of the debate on European contract law, three different strategies can be envisaged to achieve this end. The first strategy tests the degree to which provisions under the contractual regime, not all of which are legally binding, effectively meet the needs of the weaker party in the contractual relationship, in terms of his/her security—what might for short be termed the social validity of the contract regime—(the Principles of European Contract Law, the EU rules affecting contract law, etc which are analysed and proposed in the various workshops that are currently examining them), from the specific point of view of labour law. A second strategy is to codify European or Community labour law. Lastly, another strategy is to introduce an intermediate category of long‐term social contracts. What makes this last trend particularly significant for the future is that today globalisation is progressively diminishing the income earned from labour contracts and in this sense creating insecurity. In a globalised economy, where levels of remuneration are lower than in the past, the individual's sense of security must be ensured also in the context of other social or long‐term contracts (outside the workplace), which enable people to obtain other sources of finance (such as consumer credit, for example), or to make arrangements necessary for living (such as tenancy contracts). A need exists for consumers to be granted similar rights to those which historically have been granted to workers. To take just one example: if the borrower under a consumer credit agreement loses his/her job for objective reasons, or falls ill and is therefore temporarily unable to pay the instalments under the agreement, why should there not be a mechanism which limits the credit‐providing institution from terminating the credit arrangement?     

中国法治语境下亲亲相隐如何可能

亲亲相隐制度在我国历史上具有悠久的历史,上下传承两千余年,足以佐证其生命力的强大。新中国成立后,亲亲相隐被视为封建糟粕未被立法借鉴和吸收,法律依靠强力为国民营造了大义灭亲的氛围,其结果是国民在亲情与国法的二难选择中痛苦挣扎。近日颁布的《刑诉法修正案（草案）》规定了近亲属可以拒绝出庭作证,开始将＂亲亲相隐＂原则引入法律,尽管采取了极为审慎的态度,只是规定出庭阶段而没有规定亲属全程都可以拒绝作证,这仍然能够说明法律开始关注亲属身份权利,反映出法律对人伦、人性的回归。刑事实体法应该作出怎样的回应才能实现与程序法的协调与衔接,以进一步保障亲属的身份权利,实现法律对人伦、人性的完全回归,使法律更加具有根基性与正当性,这个问题迫切需要我们作出理性的回答。