“法源”的误用——关于法律渊源的理性思考

Misuse of “Source of Law”——Thinking about the theory of source of law

法律渊源是法理学中一个非常重要的理论问题和实践问题。不仅仅对于法理学,法律渊源也是其他各法学学科的基础性概念。不了解法律渊源的概念,就无法形成对于具体法律形式的判断和运用。本文以《民法总则》颁布后国内几位法学家提出的"《民法总则》第10条赋予了习惯以新的法源地位"的观点为切入点,认为在中国法学界存在着对于法律渊源抑或"法源"概念的误用现象。这种观点将判例法国家的法源理论套用到了当代中国身上,混淆了法律渊源和规范渊源的区别。准确地讲,应该是"《民法总则》第10条赋予了习惯以规范渊源的地位,而非法源地位"。法律渊源就是"有效力的法律表现形式",这一解释在国际社会是有其基本共识的;而这种"有效力的法律表现形式"在中国的宪法和《立法法》中有明确的规定。本文还针对以法律渊源为基本单元构成的法律体系概念存在的局限性,提出了"规范体系"的概念,并对习惯、国家政策、司法解释、指导性案例等等在规范体系中的法律地位及其功能进行了分析。本文提出的规范体系概念及其建构的规范层次,对于中国法理学的发展具有重要推动作用。

The source of law is a very important theoretical and practical issue in jurisprudence. It is the basic concept not only for jurisprudence, but also for other legal disciplines. Without understanding the concept of source of law, it is impossible to form judgments and applications of specific legal forms. This article is based on the "General Principles of the Civil Law, Article 10" of "General Principles of the Civil Law gives the habit of adopting a new legal source status" as the entry point, and believes that there are misuses of the concept of "source of law" in the Chinese jurisprudence. This view applies the theory of source of law of case law countries to contemporary China, confusing the difference between of source of law and normative source. The author believes that it should be that "Article 10 of the General Principles of Civil Law gives the habit of regulating the status of normal origin and the illegal source" in the precise view. This article believes that the source of law is "effective legal manifestation"with its basic consensus in the international community, and this "effective legal manifestation"is explicitly stipulated in the Chinese Constitution and the Legislation Law. This article also proposes the concept of "normative system"for the limitations of the concept of legal system based on source of law, and analyzes the legal status and functions for customary, national policy, judicial interpretation, guiding cases, etc. in the normative system. The concept of the normative system and the normative level of its construction proposed in this article have an important role in promoting the development of Chinese jurisprudence.