实践中的法律与习惯:中国继承和赡养规则的制度分析

Law and Custom in Practice——An Institutional Analysis of the Rules of Inheritance and Maintenance in China

国家法律确认继承和赡养领域的男女平等原则已逾90年,但男子单系继承和赡养的习惯为何能顽强生存至今?背后的原因在于习惯根植并服务于民众的生活,它具有信息优势和节约交易成本与执行成本的优势,习惯更有助于提升家庭福祉。而且习惯规则还构成了纳什均衡,并在文化的助力下形成聚点均衡和民众的共同信念,所以能够强有力的自我实施。当下经济社会的变迁和民众生活方式的变化决定了不再有统一的有效率的规则,法律必须尊重不同家庭根据自身情况而进行的安排,并基于权利与义务对等的原则处理相关纠纷。基于上述分析我们还进一步发展和深化了埃里克森的福利最大化规范假说,并强调法律在信念形成过程中能够起到重要作用,影响人们的行为和法律的实施成本与效果。

The principle of equality between men and women in the field of inheritance and maintenance has been affirmed in law for 90 years.But why can the custom of inheritance and maintenance of men only survive tenaciously and be adopted by the populace so far?The reason is that customs are rooted in and serve people’s lives.They have the advantages of information and saving transaction costs and enforcement costs.Customs are more conducive to improving family well-being.Moreover,custom rules also constitute Nash equilibrium.With the help of culture,customs form a focal point equilibrium and common beliefs of the people,so they can self-enforcement Current economic and social changes and changes in people’s way of life determine that there is no longer a unified and efficient rule,which requires the law to respect the arrangements made by different families according to their own circumstances and deal with related disputes based on the principle of equal rights and obligations.Based on the above analysis,we also developed the hypothesis of maximizing welfare norms,and emphasize that law can play an important role in the formation of beliefs,which affects people’s behavior and the implementation cost and effect of law.