19世纪西方法律体系中制约“多数”的成就与局限

Legal Achievements and Limitations for Restricting Majority of Western Countries in Nineteenth Century

多数人统治如果缺乏制约,极易导致多数人的暴政。因此,建立制约多数,保护少数的尝试从未间断。19世纪西方国家在以往的基础上,从国内法和国际法两个层面上确立了意在制约多数,平等保护少数的原则,并在立法和司法实践中逐渐扩大其保护对象的范围;然而,这一范围还是片面的,局限的。导致这种局限的主要思想根源是"民族优劣论"及社会达尔文主义。无论如何,这些成就和局限都应该是当今评判和完善少数人保护法律机制的重要的历史参照系。

Without restriction the rule of majority is easy to lead to the Tyranny of majority. Hence efforts to restrict majority and protect minority has being continually tried. Based upon the history western countries gradually established the principle for restricting majority and protecting minority from municipal and international legal systems in nineteenth century; and the scope of the protecting objects of the principle was gradually enlarged through the implementation of the two legal systems. Nonetheless, limitations for the scope were obvious. It seemed that the limitations were resulted from the ideological roots of national chauvinism and social Darwinism. At any rate, the achievements and limitations should be the historical parameters for the evaluating and ameliorating the legal mechanisms for the minority protection today.