从法律原则到个案规范——阿列克西原则理论的民法应用

司法中针对某具体个案适用法律原则的通常情形是,没有既有规则可以适用(即"穷尽规则"),或者尽管有规则,但因其与原则相冲突而被排除适用。这两种情形的规范表现在实质上均可理解为原则之间的冲突。在相冲突的原则中确定何者最终适用于该具体个案,恰是阿列克西原则理论(尤其是其"竞争法则")所要解决的问题。适用"竞争法则"的核心在于找寻与确立优先条件或变量,相较于阿列克西的比重公式,参照生活常情或"事物本质"能为其找寻与确立提供更为具体的实践操作路径,因为优先条件或变量的确立由此转变为找寻连接基本案件事实与优先原则的中点(此即"裁判案件要确定的核心要素")。以"竞争法则"为理论根基,再辅之以确立优先条件或变量的具体路径,原则的规则化便水到渠成:即通过具体的优先条件或变量确立相冲突原则中优先适用的原则(即优先原则),适用优先原则的结果便是创设一个规则(即个案规范),优先条件或变量进而成为该个案规范的构成要件。个案规范才是裁判该具体个案的直接依据。

From Legal Principle to Rule of Concrete Case

A court normally applies legal principles to a concrete hard case under the following two circumstances: one is that there is no applicable rule and the other is that, although there is an applicable rule, the rule cannot be applied due to its conflict with legal principles. Normatively speaking, the above two circumstances can be understood as collisions of legal principles. The question of how to determine which one among the competing principles applies to a concrete case is exactly what Robert Alexy''s principle theory, especially the law of competing principles, tries to solve. The core to the application of the law of competing principles is to identify and establish conditions of precedence or variables. Compared with Alexy''s weight formula, common understanding of social life or the nature of things ("Natur der Sache") can offer more concrete practical methods of identification and establishment of conditions of precedence or variables, which becomes the identification and establishment of the midpoint between the facts of a case and the outweighed principle applicable to the case. Thus, concretization of principle is the natural result of the application of the law of competing principles and methods of identifying and establishing conditions of precedence or variables. The concrete process is to establish one outweighed principle among the competing principles on the basis of conditions of precedence or variables, and to create a rule through the application of the outweighed principle, namely, Regelung von Fall zu Fall. The conditions of precedence or variables thus become one of the constitutive requirements of the rule or Regelung von Fall zu Fall, which constitutes the direct basis of the judgment on a concrete hard case.