政治文明与宪政文明关系论纲

建设社会主义政治文明 ,是社会主义现代化建设的重要目标。从人类社会政治历史的发展过程来看 ,政治文明的发展与演进 ,主要是以宪政运动的形式表现出来的 ,宪政文明是政治文明高度发展的产物 ,现代政治文明的基本内涵就是宪政文明。宪政文明构成了现代政治文明的核心。中国必须吸收和借鉴世界政治文明发展和宪政文明建设的有益的经验 ,并根据我国的实际情况 ,建设一种有中国特色的社会主义政治文明、宪政文明和法治文明。     

The Constitutional and Political Economy of Trade Protection

This essay reviews Trade Protection in the United States (Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1995) by Charles K. Rowley, Willem Thorbecke and Richard E. Wagner. The book stimulates a radical rethinking of trade policy, with results that are applicable well beyond the political framework of the United States. The authors—all advocates of the Virginia public choice school of thought—provide a lucid explanation of the formation of trade policy and systematically explain the many paradoxes of endogenous policymaking. They assess the main players in the process of trade policy formation and rigorously explain the dynamic interaction of the various political organs involved. The authors conclude that unilateral free trade cannot be achieved through the ordinary legislative process, and make a compelling case for Constitutional reform. Given the fragility of free trade equilibria and the inadequacy of bilateral and multilateral trade treaties for a stable free trade environment, the right to trade should be constitutionally guaranteed as an individual right. Considering the relevance of the authors' conclusions in this phase of consolidation of European trade policymaking, this essay examines the proposed unilateral free trade amendment, addresses the game theoretic implications, in light of viable alternatives.     

信息公开与政治公议的合法化展开——一种关于“网络谣言”的宪政主义解读及解决思路

当下围绕着"公意主题事件"而生成的"网络谣言",多为公民基于参与公共政治的联动机制而形成的信息求索机制,属于公民权利的宪法机能形式。它在填补公民参与公共政治的信息赤字的同时,为建构良性的官民互动和公信机制提供了充分契机。伴随着互联网所建构的平面化信息交流机制的日益深入,以及开放、透明的公共信息机制需求在现代国家的民主政治建设中的作用日益凸显,制度设置必须提供更为开放和多元的信息交流机制,尤其是公民参与政治的公共信息获取路径。因此,需要阐明互联网上的信息生成和传递作为国民公共信息获取程式的必要性,澄清政治公议的宪法化展开逻辑,为"网络谣言"所犯政法禁忌解套,实现借助互联网有别于官方话语系统的政治公议的常态化和合法化,并最终寻求其正当性的法理根基。     

Constitutional Directives: Morally‐Committed Political Constitutionalism

About 37 state constitutions around the world feature non‐justiciable thick moral commitments (‘constitutional directives’). These directives typically oblige the state to redistribute income and wealth, guarantee social minimums, or forge a religious or secular identity for the state. They have largely been ignored in a constitutional scholarship defined by its obsession with the legitimacy of judicial review and hostility to constitutionalising thick moral commitments other than basic rights. This article presents constitutional directives as obligatory telic norms, addressed primarily to the political state, which constitutionalise thick moral objectives. Their full realisation—through increasingly sophisticated mechanisms designed to ensure their political enforcement—is deferred to a future date. They are weakly contrajudicative in that these duties are not directly enforced by courts. Functionally, they help shape the discourse over a state's constitutional identity, and regulate its political and judicial organs. Properly understood, they are a key tool to realise a morally‐committed conception of political constitutionalism.     

The Constitutional State in the Political Philosophy of Johannes Althusius

The central questions of this article are: a) Based on what arguments defended Johannes Althusius the distinction between the private and public life sphere? b) What kind of relationships exist between the state on the one hand, and private and other public associations on the other hand? c) Based on what arguments may the government restrict actions of citizens and private associations? Answering these questions leads to the conclusion that Althusius should be mentioned as one of the founding fathers of the liberal constitutional state.     

宪法：从政治法到治政法

将宪法称为政治法,虽然由来久、流传广,但弊病多、危害深,不宜继续提倡。政治事务虽然由宪法集中规范,但宪法不只是规范政治事务。单纯从宪法与政治的关系上讲,宪法不是政治统治法、被政治控制之法,而是控制政治之法、治理政权之法。人民是政治与治政的主体,宪法是人民治政的依据与准则。将宪法作为治政法,体现了民主与民治的要求,有利于增强宪法的法律属性与价值理性,有利于实现宪治、实现民主、实现自由。     

Normative Acts of the Council of Ministers of a Union Republic in the System for Implementing the Constitutional Rights of Citizens

There are various approaches in the Soviet legal literature to study of the mechanism for implementing the constitutional rights of citizens, each of which focuses on some important aspects of it. But study of the activity of specific state agencies, particularly the council of ministers of a union republic, with regard to securing the basic rights of citizens requires a more thorough examination of this mechanism. First, three of its component parts must be distinguished: the mechanism for guaranteeing rights, which is a precondition if constitutional rights are to have any substance; the mechanism for their direct implementation, i.e., the de facto practical application of these rights; and the mechanism of safeguarding these rights, which comes into play when basic rights are violated and which is aimed at restoring them and eliminating the causes and conditions of their violation.     

Modern Constitutional Legitimacy and Political Theology: Schmitt,Peterson and Blumenberg

Law and Critique - In this article, an important set of general themes will be examined in relation to the ongoing problematization of the legitimacy of modern constitutionalism within a body of...     

Reconciling Constitutionalism with Power: Towards a Constitutional Nomos of Political Ordering

Drawing upon Hannah Arendt's and Carl Schmitt's theories on the relationship between nomos and boundary, this paper revisits how constitutionalism and political power are reconciled as constitutional ordering. It first analyzes constitutionalism in the light of political modernity. Indicating that political power grounded by constitutions is omnipotent, complementing and completing constitutionalism, the paper contends that an omnipotent constitutional ordering is anything but an unleashed Leviathan. It is argued that constitutional omnipotence is framed and thus constrained by a constitutional nomos, the matrix of which is a dual delimitation of boundaries, generational, and jurisdictional.     

Behind the Mask of Method: Political Orientation and Constitutional Interpretive Preferences

Debate about how to best interpret the Constitution often revolves around interpretive methodologies (e.g., originalism or expansive interpretation). This article examines whether individuals’ political orientation influences the methodologies they prefer to use to interpret the Constitution. We study this proposed relationship using a survey of federal law clerks and an experimental study with college students. The survey results indicate that, compared to conservatives, liberal clerks prefer the current meaning or the most plausible appealing meaning of the constitutional text, while conservatives prefer the original meaning of the text. Liberal clerks also prefer to interpret the Constitution much more expansively. The second study manipulates the policy implications of expansive interpretation and finds this manipulation differentially affects liberals’ and conservatives’ expansiveness preferences.

安乐死非罪化问题研究

实施安乐死在我国仍构成犯罪,实际生活中人们需要安乐死制度。有国家法律已回应对安乐死的需求。本文认为,实施安乐死不构成犯罪,应当对安乐死非犯罪化。安乐死非罪化的途径包括事实上的非犯罪化和法律上的非犯罪化。事实上的非犯罪化包括由法院颁发许可令、民政部门等政府部门事后对个别安乐死事实的认可、终止刑事追诉程序和不予定罪等;法律上的非犯罪化则是制定安乐死法律,规定安乐死实施的严格程序,使得人们有尊严的生也有尊严地死。     

Consent,Legitimation, and Dysphoria

Ideals of consent and consensuality are rapidly displacing ideals of legality as the demarcation of lawful from unlawful, legitimate from illegitimate, and good from bad.  This is a particularly pronounced trend in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights and ethics.  Consensual sex has almost completely displaced marital sex as the demarcation of not only criminal from laudatory sex but also good from bad sex.  Likewise, the consensuality of a pregnancy is increasingly the demarcation of a celebrated rather than mourned pregnancy, rather than its marital province.  This development is justly celebrated as a breakthrough in women's rights and equality, but it carries costs.  This essay develops some of the limits and perils of an over-reliance on consent and consensuality as the primary criterion of the morality of sex and reproduction.  Consent is not always a trustworthy guide to wellbeing, for both general reasons, and reasons specific to sexual and reproductive life.     

Constitutional Agreements without Constitutional Theories

How is constitution‐making possible, when people disagree on so many questions about what is good and what is right? The answer lies in the existence of incompletely theorized agreements–agreements on abstract formulations (freedom of speech, equality under the law) and on particular practices, amidst disagreement about the largest issues in social life. Such agreements help make constitutions and constitutional law possible, even within nations whose citizens cannot concur on the most fundamental matters. Incompletely theorized agreements thus help illuminate an enduring constitutional puzzle: how members of diverse societies can work together on terms of mutual respect amidst intense disagreements about both the right and the good.     

宪法解释与宪法理解

一 宪法解释之涵义，目前学术界的理解如同对法律解释的理解一样，存在着不同的认识，举其要者，有以下两种代表性的观点： 第一，宪法解释是指一定的国家机关以其享有的宪法解释权对宪法规范的内容、涵义及界限所作的说明。持这种观点者在目前的中国宪法学界占主导地位，是一种通说。代表性的有：“宪法解释，顾名思义，就是有权解释宪法的机构依照一定的解释程序对宪法的含义所作的解释和说明。”①“宪法解释，就是宪法解释机关依照法定权限和程序，根据宪政精神和社会宪政实际需要，对宪法条文的具体含义和适用范围所作的补充说明。”②…     

祛魅与自足:政治理论对宪法解释的影响及其限度

宪法学究其根本是为了适用宪法而对宪法文本进行解释的宪法释义学。但是,由于宪法文本的不确定性,在宪法解释中纳入政治的考量是不可避免的。对于同样的宪法条款,在不同的政治理论引导下,会得出完全不同的解释结果。考察政治理论对宪法解释的影响是一种社会科学对法学的逻辑自足的祛魅,是有价值的。但是,随意选择作为宪法解释“背景规范”的政治理论,会导致解释的恣意,损害法的安定性价值。所以,必须根植于本国的制宪历史、规范环境和宪法文本去容纳政治理论论证这种“外部论证”,消解其对宪法解释确定性的损害。     

Procedural Acts as Double-Conventionalized Acts: Considerations on Conventional Acts Performed in a Courtroom Discourse

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The subject of interest of this article is procedural acts considered as double-conventionalized...     

The Political Origins of Judicial Empowerment through Constitutionalization: Lessons from Four Constitutional Revolutions

Drawing upon an analysis of the political vectors behind constitutional reform in Israel (1992), Canada (1982) New Zealand (1990), and South Africa (1993), the article suggests that the trend toward constitutionalization in culturally divided polities has not been adequately delineated by extant theories of constitutional transformation. An examination of the political origins of these four constitutional revolutions suggests that judicial empowerment is in many cases the consequence of a conscious strategy undertaken by threatened political and economic elites seeking to preserve their hegemony vis-a-vis the growing influence of peripheral groups in crucial majoritarian policymaking arenas. In response to perceived threats by peripheral groups, elites who possess disproportionate access to and influence upon the legal arena often initiate a constitutional entrenchment of rights in order to insulate policymaking from popular political pressure. Power is transferred from majoritarian decision-making arenas to national high courts, where they assume their policy preferences will find greater support. This process of conscious judicial empowerment is likely to occur (a) when the judiciary's public reputation for political impartiality and rectitude is relatively high and (b) when the courts are likely to rule, by and large, in accordance with the cultural propensities and policy preferences of the traditionally hegemonic elites.