A Non-Essentialist Version of Legal Pluralism

The concept of legal pluralism has been touted by many socio-legal scholars as a key concept in the analysis of law. Yet, after almost twenty years of such claims, there has been little progress in the development of the concept. This article will argue that the underlying cause of this lack progress lies in the fact that promoters of the concept have relied upon function-based, essentialist concepts of law. It will describe the problems generated by such concepts and, following this general analysis, will review the versions of legal pluralism articulated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Gunther Teubner. The critique of their versions of legal pluralism will lead into the posing of a non-essentialist alternative which avoids the conceptual problems of prevailing versions of legal pluralism, and provides a better tool for purposes of research and analysis of the relationship between law and society.     

西盟佤族原始法文化的原创性

西盟佤族法文化堪称原始法的典范,被国内外人类学家称为"人类原始社会的活化石",受到广泛关注。解读西盟佤族原始法文化的原创性将帮助我们反思现代法治进路的多元性和发展方向。文章试图从社会文化中研究原始法。一方面,通过对采访笔录、传说和历史叙事诗的考察,探寻原始的法意识和原始制度文化,试图从文化持有者的角度去理解西盟佤族法文化。另一方面,笔者又站在佤族文化圈以外,从"观察者"的角度,运用法人类学体系下的概念、范畴和术语,对西盟佤族社会的权威、规范和秩序进行分析、考察,进而理解原始法文化与现代法治的关系。在行文中,除了对相关资料进行整合、分析、评价外,还运用法人类学的"案例方法",借助一些典型性案例,真实展现西盟佤族法文化的原始特征和智慧因素。     

法律效果与社会效果的统一——中国法院角色定位的失误

本文通过对“法律效果与社会效果的统一”相关概念的辨析,通过探讨这一提法的本意,引用者的目的以及受束的理解,笔者将“法律效果”界定为法律本身对法律行为合法性的评判,将“社会效果”界定为社会各阶层从其自身利益出发对法律及其实施的合理性评判,认为法律效果与社会效果相统一的载体不应该只是法院的司法行为,而包括普遍的法律行为。法律行为的法律效果和社会效果相统一是法治社会、和谐社会的一种状态：这种状态的实现是一个渐进的过程,是整个社会走向真正法治,趋向和谐的漫长过程,不是某一个机构在短时间内能够实现的。因此,实现法律效果和社会效果相统一,是权力机关、行政机关、司法机关乃至每个公民的共同任务。法院将其作为自身独自完成的目标是其角色定位的失误。     

“Critical Legal Histories Revisited”: A Response

The author responds to comments reappraising “Critical Legal Histories” (CLH) (1984). CLH critiqued “evolutionary functionalism,” the idea that law is a functional response to a typical modernizing process. CLH argued that “society” was partly constituted of legal elements and that law was too indeterminate to have reliably regular functional effects. CLH has been misinterpreted as calling for a return to internal histories of “mandarin” doctrine: all it said was that some doctrinal histories were valuable, without privileging them. This response clarifies that the relations of law to society and social change, and of high‐level official law to everyday local law are distinct issues. CLH is mostly moot today, since social‐legal historians have incorporated its insight that legal concepts are embedded in everyday social practice. But other fields have revived deterministic Whiggish accounts of progressive development and of law functional to it—to which CLH's critique still seems relevant.     

法律的自治与开放——当代美国法社会学方法论变革导论

研究当代美国法社会学的方法论变革有助于揭示其知识增量,并可能为中国法社会学提供理论资源。方法论是指对方法的研究或理论分析,即把方法组织成一个体系并予以理论说明。由于一个学科的所有理论和方法论都围绕该学科的核心问题而组织,并通过继承与批判传统而逐步演进,因此方法论研究应揭示主导变化的核心线索和变化所蕴含的学术意义。法社会学的核心问题是法律与社会的关系。法社会学以社会学视角破除法学的法律自治观念,证明法律领域的开放性。当代美国法社会学通过方法论变革批判了"法律与社会"的模式,使法律与社会的关系以及法律的自治与开放获得新的解释。     

Why Do the European Court of Justice Judges Need Legal Concepts?

The article considers the reasons why the European Court of Justice (ECJ) judges need legal concepts when they pronounce their judgments. It points out that the ECJ as a law‐interpreting and an ipso facto law‐making court needs legal concepts to communicate results of its interpretative and law‐making enterprise. The article also shows how in the context of Article 234 EC preliminary ruling procedure legal concepts become useful tools of portraying ECJ judgments as mere products of interpretation and not as the results of subsuming the facts of the case into a legal provision. It is by means of application of legal concepts, that the ECJ judges are able to justify that they are not overstepping the mandate they have been entrusted with. In the same time the use of legal concepts enables them to engage in dialogue with national judges, who seek guidance as to the content of EC law rules, and to maintain a strong doctrine of precedent. Most importantly, however, the use of concepts promotes coherence which, the article maintains, is the primary source of Community law's authority, and thus constitutes the foundational technique of persuading the relevant audience that Community law is indeed a legal system.     

Law’s Capacity for Vagueness

This paper deals with the particularities of vagueness in law. Thereby the question of the law’s capacity for vagueness is closely related to the question of the impact of vagueness in law, since exaggerated vagueness combined with the elasticity of legal interpretation methodology may affect the constitutional principles of legal certainty, the division of powers, and the binding force of statute. To represent vagueness and the instability of legal concepts and rules, a Hyperbola of Meaning is introduced, opposing Heck’s metaphor of a core and a periphery of meaning. Furthermore, evidence is provided that the use of vague legal concepts and the capability of legal methodology to affect the specific meaning of those concepts, may give rise to astonishing and irrational changes of meaning of the law. Finally the paper sets out in search of an added value of vagueness in law, and weighs several stated pros and contras of vagueness. The paper is written against a background of the German speaking realm.     

The welfare courts: A socio-legal analysis of risk management through modern strict liability

The aim of the essay is to offer an adequate theoretical framework for a socio-legal analysis of risk management by the legal system. Law and risk are the two most important concepts to be clarified. Unlike the law, whose function consists in the temporal stabilisation of normative expectations, the perspective of risk is characterised by the possibility of changing the criteria for decisions based upon the evaluation of the consequences of those decisions. In the context of a modern society, characterised by an increasing demand for protection for people injured by new technologies, one observes certain difficulties in the attempt to adopt a risk perspective within the legal system. The result of this process is the new law of tort based upon the modern principles of strict liability. While strict liability can be shown to be effective in managing conflicts relating to technological accidents, its most negative effects are the increasing instability of legal structures and interference with the activities of other subsystems of society, such as medicine and the economy.     

司法裁判引证法律学说的功能研究——基于生效裁判文书的实证分析

法律学说是连接立法与实践的知识储备和理论桥梁,也是推动司法与社会互动的知识引擎和理论动力。学者的学术观点是法律学说的直接体现。在我国,存在司法判决引证法学学者观点的现象。实证研究表明,268份样本裁判文书中,有60位法学学者的观点被引证307次。法律学说在裁判文书中发挥着解释法律、论证说理及补充法律漏洞等作用,从而增强法官对法律事实性质或裁判结果判断的合理性和合法性,提升裁判结果的可接受性。从应然层面来看,法律学说要为司法裁判提供可能的参考答案,为司法裁判提供有效的法律方法以及通过司法裁判总结科学的司法规律。实证研究与理论分析表明,虽然司法判决可以成为法律学说的“试验田”,但是从主题任务和实践立场两分的角度看,法学与司法的适当分离是法治持续进步的阶梯。     

法理即法律原理之解说

自清末民初以来,将法理解说为法律原理就成为法学界的通例,但其界定方式则有四种:一是径直以法律原理定位法理;二是将法律原理、法律原则并列来定位法理;三是将法理视为由法律原理推导出的法律一般原则;四是认为法理是指法律原则,但包括法律原理在内。法理和法律原理的存在是一种客观的必然:世上的万事万物都应有其存在和运行的原理,法律自然也不例外;法律作为人类的伟大创造,自身即蕴含着追求正义等法律价值的法理;法律的价值观念虽因时代、地区的不同而会有所差异,但其中的基础法理却不受时空影响;对法律的分析和研究舍法理之外别无他途。立足于已有的研究成果,可将法理界定为"在综合各种法律现象的基础上,由学者所抽象并为社会所认同的有关法律基础、法律根据、法律判准、法律渊源的基础性、普遍性原理"。同时,法理与自然规律、社会价值、内存于法典和单行法律中的法律原则以及事理、情理等存在明显的差异,不可混淆。     

假劣疫苗刑法规制的回应性与整全性

长春长生疫苗事件导致出现社会信任危机与社会恐慌,有鉴于此,国家提出“完善疫苗药品刑事法律制度”。法律与社会之间存在着互动关系,社会复杂性的增长需要并促进法律结构的变迁,法律的变化又导致重大社会变化。因此假劣疫苗的刑法规制,不只是满足一种专业需要,更要满足社会需要,承担社会整合功能。作为整全性的法律,要求保持协调一致性及价值的融贯性。假劣疫苗的刑法规制,既要与假劣药犯罪相协调,又要与刑法典相协调,还要在整个法律体系中与《疫苗管理法》《药品管理法》相协调。疫苗刑法制度的修改完善,承担着回应社会和价值融贯的追求,既是法律问题,也是道德问题。     

Some Reflections on the Relationship between Citizenship, Access to Justice, and the Reform of Legal Aid

The reflexive, reciprocally constitutive relationship between law and society makes a substantive right of access to justice pivotal to the content of citizenship. It is therefore arguable that the establishment of legal aid, however limited in practice, was fundamental to the expanded citizenship which the post-war settlement sought to achieve. However this social form of citizenship has been attenuated by the reconfiguration of the state and the neo-liberal reconstruction of the public sector. Yet at the same time, the concepts of citizenship and social exclusion have become key discursive mechanisms in this reconstruction, including in the New Labour reform of the legal aid sector. This paper considers the various meanings attributed to the concepts of citizenship, social exclusion, and access to justice through the optic of the history of policy changes in legal aid. The impact of globalization and economic restructuring on social citizenship is explored, both in terms of the experience of recipients of public goods like legal services, and the professionals who supply them. The commensurability of the New Labour Community Legal Service (CLS) model with other models of justice is discussed. The conclusion briefly returns to the theme of law's 'citizen-constitutive' role and considers the potential of the CLS for combating social exclusion.     

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (“empirical facts”). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how “empirical facts” are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.     

中国的法治进程与公众参与——以网民参与法律事件对法治建设的影响为例

中国走的是一条政府主导型的法治化发展道路,即在政府主导下强制性地完成社会制度变迁。在这一过程中,中国社会的法治发展条件也发生了根本性的变化。社会自身的发展、经济和社会生活的需要、公众的参与正在成为法治发展的动力。本文以时间为序,把中国的法治进程划分为初始起步阶段、加速发展阶段和平稳发展阶段,并以公众中极具代表性的网民群体作为分析范本,以当前网民参与法律事件为例,结合目前我国所处的法治阶段,分析了网民参与法律事件的性质和特征,以期进一步探讨中国法治进程和公众参与之间的互动意义。     

浅论完善我国法律教育之路

在现代法治社会,法律教育越来越受到重视。在推行依法治国的今天,中国的法律教育正 酝酿着一次巨变。但要达到完善并不是一朝一夕之事。本文通过对比国外几种法律教育模式,对我国 法律教育提出几点建议。     

当代中国离婚率研究

一、基本情况 身份法包括离婚法是受中国固有文化传统影响最为深远的法律领域。而在世界历史的发展潮流中，不同国家的婚姻观念和制度也出现了某种程度的融合。中国现行离婚制度既有对民族优秀文化传统的承继与弘扬，也有随着时代进步的不断改革与更新。 中国古代社会是宗法社会。重祖宗而不重“上帝”，重宗法信条而不重宗教信条。在传统理念中。婚姻是一种普通的民事关系．离婚是一种正常的婚姻行为。以世俗的眼光和社会生活的需要作为评判婚姻质量的标准。作为婚姻关系取舍的根据。这就形成了与欧洲中世纪寺院法之下“禁止离婚主义”完全不同的“许可离婚主义”，它深刻地影响着当今中国人的婚姻观念。使人们能够普遍接受“不会理的婚姻关系理应解除”的准则。     

从司法实践的视角看经济全球化与我国法制建设--论法与社会的互动

在全球化背景下 ,我国将面临法律移植、法制现代化等一系列复杂的社会变革 ,这必然要求我们以多元的法律意识来取代单一形态的法律意识 ,以多元的理念与规则推进政治和司法体制改革 ,协调好传统文化与外来文化、作为规则的“法”和民间规范等的关系 ,从而使作为发展中国家的我国在全球化时代也能取得更大的发展。     

The socio-legal acceptance of new technologies: a close look at artificial insemination

Heated debates often surround the introduction of an important new technology into society, as exemplified by current controversies surrounding human cloning and privacy protection on the Internet. Underlying these controversies are disruptions to central socio-legal values caused by these new technologies. Whether new technologies will eventually be accepted by society is often contingent on the reaction of the legal system. This mandates the formulation of a conceptual framework for understanding and structuring the way the law should react in cases surrounding the adoption of new technologies. By using the case study of artificial insemination this Article develops the tools for structuring the legal role in the acceptance process of new technologies. The three-century controversy surrounding the innovation of artificial insemination results from the innovations' disruption of the socio-legal value of the family. Artificial Insemination--although invented in the eighteenth-century--was rarely used until the 1930s, and only legalized in the 1960s. Its application to surrogacy and its use by unmarried women extends the controversy into the twenty-first century. The case study demonstrates the nature of the relationship among the technological, social and legal acceptance processes of new technologies, and analyzes the legal acceptance debate. The conceptual framework produced is useful in understanding and structuring the legal role in current debates surrounding the introduction and acceptance of new technologies.     

Symbolic Power Without Violence? Critical Comments on Legal Consciousness Studies

In this paper I analyze the reception of constructivist social theory in these sociolegal studies. The hypothesis that I want to demonstrate is that despite the importance of their contributions to understanding of law, there is a theoretical ambiguity in these studies. This follows from the fact that they adhere to social theories which are premised on different presuppositions about social relations and thus irreconcilable. To illustrate this ambiguity I will contrast the way that the concept of symbolic efficacy is employed in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who is frequently cited in the legal consciousness studies as an authorized theoretical reference. I will analyze the basic concepts that underpin the sociolegal studies considered here, discuss the idea of the symbolic in law, and provide a theoretical comparison between Bourdieu and legal consciousness studies.     

试论法治目标下的公众法律意识的生成

普法是建设法治社会的基础性工程。法治目标下的“五五”普法必须以培养和生成公众的法律意识为目标。为此,必须优化和强化公众法律意识生成的利益诱致机制;在普法理念上,实现由重普及法律知识向重普及法律意识、由重普及权利意识向重普及义务意识两大转变;在具体方式上,可采用立法参与、诉讼参与和媒体参与等三种普法形式。