支持理论下民事诉讼当事人法律意识的实证研究

传统研究重视“法的供给”视角,致力于创设“良法良制”。通过转向“对法的需求”视角,本研究基于支持理论和法律意识理论,访谈了142名四类常见民事诉讼案件的当事人。本研究发现,当事人对司法的信赖分为“特定支持”和“普遍支持”两个维度。负面的诉讼经历仅会降低当事人对主审法官(法院)的评价(特定支持),尚未削弱他们对法院系统及司法制度的评价(普遍支持)。此外,当事人可以被进一步分为“门外汉”和“入门者”。前者不信赖法院的根本原因在于其法律意识与司法制度间存在巨大的冲突和矛盾;“入门者”的意识则限定于法律体系内,只在意法官的审判质量。随着司法系统的日渐完善,“入门者”对司法的信赖有望逐步提升。但“门外汉”则需要通过“知情(法)受益”这一过程先转化为“入门者”。

An Empirical Study on Civil Litigants’ Legal Consciousness Based on Support Theory

Traditional legal research focuses on the“supply side of law”,and endeavors to formulate good laws and establish better legal institutions.Based on the“support theory”and the“legal consciousness theory,”this article turns to the perspective of the“demand side of law”.Through the interviews of 142 litigants of four common types of civil disputes,this article shows that litigants’confidence in the legal system consists of two dimensions,that is,specific support and diffuse support.Negative trial experience only corrodes their faith in the undertook judge and the court,which is specific support.Such negative trial experience,however,has not weaken their diffuse support,namely their faith in the court system and the judicial institution.This article further categorizes litigants into“laymen”and“adepts”,the former’s distrust in the court(or the undertook judge)stems from the sharp tension between their legal consciousness and the formal legal institution.By contrast,the latter’s legal consciousness is confined to the formal legal system and merely concerns the quality of the trial.Thus,with the improvement of the judicial system,the adepts’faith in the judiciary probably would be enhanced.However,the laymen should be firstly transformed into adepts through“the informed and benefited process”before their faith in the judiciary can be enhanced along with the improvement of the judicial system.