Deliberative Democracy and Constitutional Review

Law and Philosophy -     

司法审查与民主——矛盾中的共生体?

本文的目的在于消除一个误解:司法审查和民主是相互冲突的.本文通过比较世界各国的宪法文本以及某些国家的制度运作,探讨了司法审查在世界范围的历史、功能和实践,重点是司法审查制度在新兴宪政国家的发展.虽然在司法审查的主体、对象、性质和程序上,不同的审查模式具有显著不同的特征,但都是为了实现保护自由和抗衡专制的共同目的.因此,司法审查和民主都同样履行着反专制职能--如果民主是为了抗衡少数人的专制,那么司法审查是为了抗衡民主体制下的多数人专制.在这个意义上,司法审查和民主之间确实存在一定的矛盾,但在本质上是一对相互依存、相互补充和相互制衡的共生体.     

寻求不一致的一致——试论软法与协商民主机制的结构性耦合

卢曼认为,法律是一个使用合法/不合法的独特符号作为沟通手段的独立的规则系统,是人类行为的规范性预期的制度化。法律规范作为独立系统欲保持稳定与再生则必须在封闭运行的同时与外部环境之间保持认知的开放,其对外部环境刺激的稳定回应模式即为结构性耦合。从此视角观察,软法是一个相对而言制度化程度较低的,其稳定预期的功能相对弱化了的规则系统,它允许中间程度的效力,其创生本身具有回应性目的。软法建构的环境在国际关系和国内民主政治领域的表现形式就是协商民主。协商民主政治机制本身的出现就具有回应民主程度问题的性质,其成功的几个关键机制需要弹性的规范体系。软法能够模式化地回应协商民主的需要而与之形成结构性耦合。     

Judicial Review,Rights, and Democracy

Law and Philosophy -     

Less Democracy, More Courts: A Puzzle of Judicial Review in Russia

This article explores why, throughout the 1990s, some Russian regions created their own constitutional courts and others did not. Contrary to current theories that assert that politicians create a strong and independent judiciary to protect them from the tyranny of election-winners in the context of political uncertainty, my analysis finds that constitutional courts emerged only in those regions where governors virtually guaranteed their re-election by consolidating their political power vis-à-vis federal and local governments. The article argues that both federal and regional politicians used the process of creating subnational constitutional courts to legitimize their federalism and judicial reforms. The changes in the balance of power between those governors, who aspired to have their own judicial system, and the federal government that insisted on a single federal judicial system, determined the variation in the process of court-building across Russian regions.     

Deliberative Democracy and Liberal Rights

Many liberals cannot help distrusting deliberative democracy theory. In their view, the theory offers no sufficient guarantee that the outcomes of democratic deliberation will be respectful of individual interests generating what they conceive as basic moral rights. The purpose of this text is to provide one argument showing that liberal rights are sufficiently protected within deliberative democracy theory. The argument does not rest on the idea of moral rights or material justice. It rests on the conditions of legitimate law deliberative democracy theory presupposes, namely, the conditions that make concrete the idea of legitimacy as "actual public justification."     

Moral Rights,Judicial Review,and Democracy: A Response to Horacio Spector

Law and Philosophy -     

The Idea of Deliberative Democracy. A Critical Appraisal

The deliberative conception of politics seems to be necessary for the legitimation of state power through democratic will-formation and decision-making. However, the author maintains that a complex theory of democracy cannot merely consist in procedural prerequisites for organizing the concomitant institutional settings. In particular, such a theory must comprise some substantive presuppositions, such as social and economic rights, in order to diminish existing material inequalities, especially those connected with social exploitation and domination. The author argues that a contemporary theory of democracy should reflect on the autonomization of mechanisms of egoistic action challenging not only the democratic political order, but also the very reproduction preconditions of societies all over the world. In this perspective, the model of associative democracy, which is suggested nowadays as a sort of substantive correlative to the institutional proceduralism, could not significantly rejuvenate the traditional representative democracy. Instead, democracy could only be given a fresh impulse if democratic deliberation penetrates the currently forbidden field of capitalist production and social exploitation, the locus where social inequality and effective unfreedom are endlessly reproduced.     

Extra-Legal Values in Judicial Interpretation of Law: A Model Reasoning and Few Examples

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - The aim of the paper is to analyze the types of interpretative reasoning determining the content...     

完善我国司法鉴定法律制度之管见

我国现行司法鉴定制度在鉴定结论质证以及鉴定机构和鉴定人的诉讼义务及民事责任规范等方面仍存在问题。本文对英美法系的专家证人制度进行分析,并建议借鉴专家证人制度并与我国具体司法实践和本土法律文化相结合,构建司法鉴定与专家证人相辅相成的公正、合理、高效、低成本的司法鉴定制度。     

Constitutional Rights and Democracy in the U.S.A.: The Issue -of Judicial Review

Abstract. The first section takes up some main details of American constitutional history. At the end of that section and in section two, we concentrate on one constitutional doctrine in particular, judicial review. We argue that this doctrine rests, traditionally, on the foundational idea of a permanent tension between democratic institutions and basic rights. In section three, we deal with the problem just raised, by suggesting an alternative view of the relationship that exists between these fundamental constitutional elements. Here we attempt to show that there is an essential principled harmony between basic constitutional rights and democratic majority rule. And we try to locate judicial review within this alternative conception. Then in section four and in the conclusion we discuss the institutional arrangements for the practice of judicial review in the light of this alternative conception.     

从理论到实践:协商民主理论与公共新闻学

协商民主与公共新闻学是在西方政治学与新闻学领域兴起的对西方社会民主缺失的反思,二者皆强调公民作为主体参与政治的民主实质。大众传媒应促进公民参与公共生活,并对事关公共利益的问题作有意义的议题设置,引导公众思考和作出决策,提供公共论坛,呈现各种不同观点,积极地推动公共讨论和论辩,以推进民主发展。     

民主过程的司法审查:法国议会选举诉讼制度评析

选举是实现国家机关政治统治合法性与正当性的制度基础。保证选举活动合法进行、依法解决选举争议是依法治国的重要内容。由议会自己来审查议员选举合法性问题的制度在法国被证明是失败的。从第五共和国开始,法国的宪法委员会承担了选举法院的角色,审理国会议员选举争议案件。法国议会选举争议裁决制度的发展过程、审查原则、处理程序对中国相关制度的完善有重要的启发意义。     

司法审查：一种动态民主的机制

从代议民主的角度看,司法审查和民主之间确实存在着矛盾,美国司法审查的几种理论路径不能解释清楚司法审查正当性的问题,伊利的程序主义理论回避司法审查合法性的实体问题即国会立法违背宪法的客观标准为何,宪法文本的不确定性使得司法审查的客观标准成为一个难题,但是如果从动态的民主参与方面看,对国会立法进行违宪审查的目的是建立一种动态的参与民主机制,在代议民主和大众之间建立沟通的桥梁,使民众的话语得到张扬,让民主运转起来,故美国确立司法审查的理论基础是动态的参与民主机制。     

Rights-Based Judicial Review: A Democratic Justification

Law and Philosophy -