比较法研究中的中国法——关于法律的地位和权力组织形式的思考

在比较法研究中，中国法一直占有重要地位，但在主流的西方比较法文献中，西方法是正统，中国法只处于边缘地位。法律在社会中不占主导地位，一直是西方人眼中中国传统法的主要特点。西方学者认为，中国传统法具有专制主义、集权主义的特征，这同中国的“治水社会”的历史有着密切联系。改革开放以来中国经济与社会的发展，对西方有关中国法的观点以及法律和社会发展的模式提出了挑战。在法律的地位和集权与分权问题上，不应把中国法与西方法绝对对立起来，西方和中国在处理熟人关系和陌生人关系，应对正常状态和非常状态问题上有许多相近之处，它们是中国与西方共同面对的问题。把中国法研究放在西方各种法律进化模式中虽然具有参考价值，但终归是靠不住的，应转到以问题为中心的轨道。

Chinese Law in Comparative Perspective

The Chinese law has long occupied an important position in the study of comparative law, although the western law is legitimate while the Chinese law is marginal in the mainstream literatures of comparative law in the West. This paper focuses on two issues, namely, the role of law in the society and the organizational form of powers. In the perspective of many western scholars, the Chinese law is not predominant in the society because the formal law is not easy to regulate the relationship among acquaintances. On the other hand, powers in the traditional China are centralized and autocratic because of its governance concepts.The development of economy and society in China since the reform and opening up has challenged the above mentioned views on the Chinese law and some classical models of the development of law and society. This paper proposes that the Chinese law and the Western law are not opposite with each other in the issues of the role of law and the centralization or decentralization of powers. As a matter of fact, the West and China have many similarities in handling the relationship among acquaintances and the relationship among strangers, and also in the way to reply to normal situations and emergencies, which are the common issues that the West and China are facing. It is unreliable to fix Chinese law in a certain evolutionary mode of the West although it provides a certain reference. We should shift our methods from focusing on the evolutionary mode to centralizing on issues or social relations regulated by law in different countries.