新中国法律史学科70周年记——以人大法律史学科发展历程为观照

A Review of the Development of Legal History as a Discipline in the Past 70 Years since 1949:Taking Renmin University as an Example

中国人民大学法律系是新中国最先设置法律史教研室的法学院系,其法律史学科发展在新中国法律史学科发展历程中具有一定典型意义。人大法律史学科的初创、恢复、壮大和升华历程,是新中国成立70年来法律史学科发展状况的局部生动写照。以人大法律史学科发展为线索,观照马列主义指导下的新中国新型法律史学科70年发展历程,可以认为:1949—1978年是新中国法律史学科的初创期,从确立全盘苏化的学科发展模式到在一系列政治运动中遭受严重打击,这一时期的法律史学科发展缓慢而曲折;改革开放以来,随着思想的解放和对法律的重视,法律史学科得以恢复重建,并迎来了快速发展和走向繁荣的新时期;21世纪以来,法律史学科发展进一步迈入传承与升华的新阶段。在此期间,政治制度和国家制度得以从法律史研究对象中剥离,学科内容日益具有独立性,学科建设日渐成熟,学术研究更加科学系统。展望未来,法律史学科一方面要发扬学科自省精神,树立学科自觉意识;另一方面要注重学科间的交流和学科内的传承,从而为当代中国法治现代化进程提供历史依据和借鉴。

The law department at Renmin University is the first institute in China that has established a faculty for legal history teaching and research since 1949. The development of its legal history discipline has certain typical significance in that its initiation, restoration, growth and upgrading well mirrors the development of this discipline in China over the past seven decades. By reviewing the history of the legal history studies under the guidance of Marxism in China since 1949 through focusing on the typical case of Renmin University, we have made the following findings. The period from 1949 to 1978 is the initial stage of the development of legal history as a discipline in China where it witnessed a slow progress and underwent many twists and turns in that it was totally modelled on the pattern of former Soviet Union at the beginning and later plunged into great chaos caused by a series of political movements. The second stage is the period from the implementation of opening-up and reform policy in 1978 to the turn of the new millennium, during which the discipline of legal history was restored and embraced a rapid progress to prosperity thanks to the liberation of thought and the awareness of the importance of law. Since 2000, China’s legal history discipline has entered a new stage of carrying forward and upgrading the good tradition. In this period, legal history studies are becoming a genuine independent and mature discipline characterized by more systematic researches for the components of political and state institution studies have been separated from this discipline. Looking to the future, the development of legal history studies needs to strengthen their reflexivity and identity as an independent discipline on the one hand and to pay enough attention to its exchange with other disciplines and the inheritance within the discipline itself. All this can provide valuable historical experience for the modernization of rule of law in contemporary China.