The Various Relations between Law and Morality in Contemporary Legal Philosophy

This paper is intended to be a summary of the author's views on the relationship between law and morality worked out over the past three decades in jurisprudence. The paper preliminarily clarifies the matter by isolating some lines of cleavage separating different questions askable about this relationship. With this done, the author argues for two theses. One, that judges are obligated to use morality in their decisions in particular cases; and two, that the morality judges are obligated to use in their judicial reasonings, is best seen as the natural lawyer sees it, namely, as being part of the law that obligates judges in their role as judges. The author not only believes these theses to be true; he also thinks that these theses are practically important, in that their acceptance by judges (and by the legal culture that reinforces judges) makes for better judging.     

儒家“中庸”之传统法文化观照

＂中＂的思想,是中国文化的性格特征。随着思孟学派经典《中庸》的出现,以及儒学的意识形态化,＂中庸＂全面而深刻地影响人生哲学与社会政治。中庸的思想大致呈现出儒家至德、本体论、方法论三个面相,通过不同进路观照于传统法文化。中庸主义一方面要求通过内圣功夫,经由个人内在道德的修养,修塑＂治人＂之主体人格——传统法文化中秉持＂直道＂,追求无讼,注重调解,兼顾情理法的司法官员;另一方面,在外王意义上,中庸通过治法之和合构建并维持一种超稳定的统治秩序,传统法文化中德刑相辅、礼法融合、宽猛相济、人治＂和谐＂诸特质均为其题中之义。     

法治·德治·公安

道德与人类俱来。道德与法律从来密切。法律的独立与疏远道德。"道德赤字"时代,新世纪呼唤道德。亟需道德价值观补课,达到五项共识。德与法均衡发展,使法律的权威建立在人民自觉的基础上。中国走向法治与德治相结合,德治工程时不我待。公安法制应与公安道德相结合,公安工作具有道德性,道德预防是公安预防的主要防线,公安道德是公安软实力。公安立法、执法、守法都要坚持伦理原则,应以德建警。     

道德诚信与法律诚信的法理解读

诚实信用原则被誉为统帅整个民法领域的“帝王条款,”有利于保护与均衡民事主体的合法利益与社会利益,由此形成法益之平衡格局,并基于此推动商品经济的良性、健康、有序的运行。而这样一个目的价值的实现是诚信原则那复杂交织的道德属性与法律属性在博弈与契合的过程中所产生的能动司法功能对社会经济关系作用的结果。     

法律实证主义的强立场——兼评拉兹《法律的权威》

在法律与道德的关系上,拉兹认为有效法律的鉴别标准完全排除道德论证,这就是拉兹的渊源论.渊源论表明所有的法律都具有渊源,渊源论的论据来自权威论.权威以理由为基础,是改变行为理由的能力.法律也要主张权威,法律主张合法性权威是它的一个本质特征.权威性理由是排他性理由,排除了道德因素的可能性,权威论支持了渊源论.权威论受到了来自包容性实证主义者和德沃金的批评,他们的争论共同推进了对法律与道德关系问题的研究.     

The Mistreatment of Others: Discrimination Can Undermine University Identification,Student Health,and Engagement

Past research documents the extent that discrimination experiences and observations can undermine people’s health and performance. In addition to discrimination’s direct consequence for targets, discrimination implicates the morality of the larger community where it occurs. Perceptions of community morality could predict community identification that, in turn, could predict health and performance. To test this serial mediation hypothesis, 615 second- and third-year university undergraduates reported the frequency of discrimination observations and experiences. Students’ perceptions of the university community’s morality mediated the relationship between discrimination and the extent that they identified with the university. In turn, university identification mediated the relationship between university morality and students’ academic engagement and mental health. However, only university morality reliably mediated the relationship between discrimination and physical health. Discrimination can affect the health and engagement of all community members, even observers who are not part of the targeted group.     

“Blue” Morality and the Legitimacy of the State—Ed Rubin's Soul,Self, and Society: The New Morality and the Modern State

Ed Rubin's provocative new book, Soul, Self, and Society: The New Morality & the Modern State (2015), attempts to capture the relationship between morality and the state. It maintains that that there are three comprehensive moral systems: the morality of honor that characterized feudal relationships and survives today in failed states and urban gangs, the morality of higher purposes that linked individual self‐worth and state legitimacy to a shared belief system, and the morality of self‐fulfillment that entrusts development of a moral code to each individual and sees the role of the state as creating the conditions for individual flourishing. This review essay argues that Rubin's work is critically important in explaining that the idea of self‐fulfillment combines public tolerance with private discipline, and rests on obligation as well as freedom. It suggests, however, that if the new morality were to truly take hold, it would weaken the links between citizen and state that make the system possible.     

Exchange Rate Adjustment in Partially Liberalized Economy

This paper develops a model of exchange rate determination in partially liberalized post-socialist economy that operates under soft budget constraints in nontradable sectors. The model captures the factors that determine the evolution of a country's external balance during the initial phase of economic liberalization. Three types of disturbances are the center of analysis: liberalization of trade and foreign exchange regime, devaluation, and price liberalization. We show that the real exchange rate appreciation may either improve or worsen the trade balance depending on the sources of this appreciation. Thus, we argue that the real exchange rate cannot reflect true country's competitiveness unless all sectors are equally exposed to hard budget constraints. The model implications are further analyzed through the empirical evidence on the relationship between the real exchange rate and trade balance in three selected East European countries.     

Alexy's Thesis of the Necessary Connection between Law and Morality

This paper criticizes Alexy's argument on the necessary connection between law and morality. First of all, the author discusses some aspects of the notion of the claim to correctness. Basically, it is highly doubtful that all legal authorities share the same idea of moral correctness. Secondly, the author argues that the claim to correctness is not a defining characteristic of the concepts of “legal norm” and “legal system”. Hence, the thesis of a necessary connection between law and morality based on such claim cannot be accepted. 1 Abstract by Antonino Rotolo.
     

Reshaping informed consent in the biobanking context

In my article, I discuss the role of informed consent in the context of biobanking. I argue that the basic issue in understanding the role of the consent is one of identifying the interests at stake and determining which of these interests we intend to promote. The definition of the informational content represents only a consequential step. For this purpose, I analyse the legal status of human biological materials from three different perspectives: "material", "informational" and "relational". Informed consent produces different effects on each of these perspectives. From the material perspective, consent can influence the allocation of property rights over human tissue; from the informational point of view, consent is the legal instrument that permits control over personal data; while from the "relational" perspective, it is possible through consent to ensure that the person's personal beliefs are respected. The crucial point is that the legal effects that informed consent has on the three perspectives overlap. Therefore, in order to understand the role of informed consent holistically, in this article I analyse how these perspectives relate to each other. This analysis shows that the relationship between the perspectives can vary depending on the interests that we intend to promote. If we intend to promote the freedom of research, then the material dimension can prevail, whilst if we focus our attention on the interests of individuals then the informational and the relational dimensions will prevail. The challenge is to find a good balance between these two extremes.     

Body scanners versus privacy and data protection

In recent history, the world has experienced dramatic events which have had a substantial effect on the balance between human rights protection and security measures. Body scanners installed at airports are intended to protect our lives. But at the same time they have a serious impact on privacy and data protection. The international legislation allows limiting people’s rights and freedoms, but only if it is in accordance with the law and is proportionate and necessary for national security, public safety and for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. Do body scanners respect these principles? The article examines the current situation, its background and future prospects. It discusses and analyzes the key terms and legal instruments, problems, disputes and proposed “safeguards”. The work concludes by pointing out the unlawfulness of current regimes and sets forth perspective on the possible solutions.     

Sexual orientation as a justice issue: Issues of postmodern social philosophy and religion for civil rights

This essay theoretically explores three core concerns for social justice research and analysis in the transition from social and legal philosophical foundations based upon Enlightenment categorical universals to a postmodern context that recognizes concurrent globalization and the constructed nature of particular status identities. Utilizing sexual orientation as a case study, the concerns are, what constitutes a civil right in a postmodern context, how useful are categories versus behaviors in protecting civil rights, and how does religion affect the civil morality that justifies and legitimates justice criteria? The argument is made that a justice construct for sexual orientation must rely both on behavioral freedoms and ontological status for adequate protection of human dignity and equality. It also is argued that interreligious discourse is essential to reparticularize religiomoral assumptions that have justified inequality and to provide an adequate negotiated grounding to legitimate shared norms upon which postmodern justice philosophy can be built.     

在经验与规则之间——论民事证据立法的几个基本问题

民事证据制度是民事诉讼制度的重要组成部分。在完善民事证据法律系统的过程中,与立法相关的一些重要问题必须予以澄清。从证据规则与经验之间的关系着手,应重点研究以下问题:证据法是否能够脱离诉讼法单独存在;独立存在的证据法应当具有什么内容;如何平衡证据规则与法官自由裁量之间的关系。     

Out of Time: The Moral Temporality of Sex, Crime and Taboo

This paper discusses the relationship between law and morality. Morality does not necessarily coincide with the law, but it contributes to it. An act may be legal but nevertheless considered to be immoral in a particular society. For example, the use of pornography may be considered by many to be immoral. Nevertheless, the sale and distribution of non-violent, non-child related, sexually explicit material is legal (or regulated) in many jurisdictions. Many laws are informed by, and even created by, morality. This paper examines the historical influence of morality on the law and on society in general. It aims to develop a theoretical framework for examining legal moralism and the social construction of morality and crime as well as the relationship between sex, desire and taboo. Here, we refer to the moral temporality of sex and taboo, which examines the way in which moral judgments about sex and what is considered taboo change over time, and the kinds of justifications that are employed in support of changing moralities. It unpacks the way in which abstract and highly tenuous concepts such as “desire”, “art” and “entertainment” may be “out of time” with morality, and how morality shapes laws over time, fabricating justifications from within socially constructed communities of practice. This theoretical framework maps the way in which these concepts have become temporally dominated by heteronormative structures such as the family, marriage, reproduction, and longevity. It is argued that the logic of these structures is inexorably tied to the heterosexual life-path, charting individual lives and relationships through explicit phases of childhood, adolescence and adulthood that, in the twenty-first century, delimit the boundaries of taboo surrounding sex more than any other time in history.     

The Role of International Legal Norms in Ensuring the "Right to a Legal Defense"

On 22 November 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the "Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of the Individual and Citizen."¹ Article 1 of the declaration states that universally recognized international norms on human rights have priority over the laws of the RSFSR where they directly give rise to rights and duties of citizens. But, in the words of A.M. Vasil'ev, this is "really only a defended, not a proclaimed right."² The systems of international and Soviet law set down the procedure and the order of realization of rights and freedoms and the ways and means for their legal defense. An important guarantee for the realization of rights and freedoms is ensuring the individual's right to a legal defense.     

Is Sincerity the First Virtue of Social Institutions? Police,Universities, and Free Speech

In the final chapter of Speech Matters, Seana Shiffrin argues that institutions have especially stringent duties to protect speech freedoms. In this article, I develop a few lines of criticism. First, I question whether Shiffrin’s framework of justified suspended contexts is appropriate for institutional settings. Second, I challenge the presumption that the knowledge-gathering function performed by police is necessarily compromised by insincere practices. Third, I criticize Shiffrin’s characterization of the university as involving a complete repudiation of enforced consensus, and I express doubts about the close connection between education and democratic legitimation that Shiffrin endorses. Finally, I raise a problem with the book’s overall argument: even if one agrees that speech freedoms are necessary for moral development, they also may be threatening to moral development. The upshot is that the protection of speech should be modulated in order to account for the potential conflicts between sincerity and other valuable ends, rather than being oriented above all to sincerity.

     

医疗体制改革的法学思考——基于医改成果公平分享的视角

医疗体制改革面临着艰难的抉择。如何正确确定医改的目标,使广大人民共享医改成果,是构建和谐社会的一个重要方面。医改偏离社会目标的原因有四:一是政府干预不足与干预过度;二是医疗市场化过度与市场化不足;三是医疗产品的"三重"属性;四是医患关系具有特殊性。从法学的视角进行检视,医改要达致其预期的目标,就必须在效率与可及性上下功夫。要依法规范政府、医疗市场、医院、医生及患者的关系,造就一种制度安排下的利益均衡关系。     

Strengthening Labor Discipline as a Means of Implementing the Economic and Social Policy of the Party

The current period has seen a sharp increase in the importance of research on questions pertaining to the strengthening of labor discipline, the sociopolitical and worktime activity of Soviet people, and their social responsibility to society. This is related above all to the primary direction of development of the economy — improving the efficiency of social production — to the broad range of rights and freedoms, and to consistently assuring a marked rise in the level of the people's material and cultural life. "It is necessary," L. I. Brezhnev has stated, "that every Soviet person be clearly aware that, in the final analysis, the principal guarantee of his rights is the might and the welfare of his country. And toward this end, every citizen has to feel his responsibility to society and conscientiously perform his duty to society and the people." (1)     

On Necessary Relations Between Law and Morality*

Abstract. The author's thesis is that there is a conceptually necessary connection between law and morality which means legal positivism must fail as a comprehensive theory. The substantiation of this thesis takes place within a conceptual framework which shows that there are at least 64 theses to be distinguished, concerning the relationship of law and morality. The basis for the author's argument in favour of a necessary connection, is formed by the thesis that individual legal norms and decisions as well as whole legal systems necessarily make a claim to correctness. The explication of this claim within the frame of discourse theory shows that the law has a conceptually necessary, ideal dimension, which connects law with a procedural, universalistic morality.     

THE SUPREME COURT AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A Quest for Balance between Legal and Societal Morality

The interrelationships of legal and societal morality are examined through an analysis of judicial opinions in the Supreme Court's review of the constitutionality of the death penalty. Neither community standards nor considerations of utility provided the justices with a satisfactory basis for rejecting or regulating the death penalty. Resting their decisions instead on grounds of fairness, the justices endorsed a mode of jury guidance and monitoring that potentially facilitates citizen participation in the process of "evolving standards of decency." Legal morality thus is used as the justification for a decision that affects societal morality in a manner likely to limit rather than to expand the gap between the two moralities .