自由的危机:德国“法治国”的内在机理与运作逻辑——兼论与普通法法治的差异

Freedom in Crisis:Rethinking the Mechanism and the Logic Foundation of the German Rechtsstaat

通过展示从19世纪初至纳粹时期德国"法治国"概念的意义演变并阐释其特性,文章认为"法治国"代表着在国家结构中将个人主义与国家目的相统合的一种努力,它所固有的注定导致自我毁灭的内在紧张在于:它的目标是要促进具体的个人自由和解放,但这种目标却试图借助于抽象的不受限制的国家权力,依靠国家的立法性控制和个人的完全服从来实现。德国"法治国"与普通法法治在强调积极自由还是消极自由、逻辑起点是"国家—个人"的二元统一还是二元对立、政治结构是否置于法律之下、是否属于有限政府、是否存在权力的制衡、习惯法的地位作用等方面存在巨大的差异。文章以为,差异的重要根源之一在于双方为经营自由的事业所凭借的制度技术,即"法治国"的体系性建构方式与普通法法治中实践导向的技艺理性。

This article focuses on the principle of Rechtsstaat in Germany from the early 19th century to the Nazi times.By showing the history of the Rechtsstaat theory and its features,the article holds that the Rechtsstaat represented an effort to combine individualism with the goal of the state in state structure.There is an inher- ent self-destructive danger for the Rechtsstaat.That is,its goal was to promote per- sonal liberty,but it tried to achieve the goal by exercising the boundless state pow- er.The Rechtsstaat is greatly different from the rule of law under the Common Law tradition in five aspects.Finally,the article comes to the conclusion that this stems partly from different institutional techniques supporting personal liberty,between the mode of systematic construction in the Continent Law family and artificial reason in the Common Law family.