司法中的伦理解释及其限度——以美国宪法为分析样本

Ethical Interpretation and Its Limits in Justice

司法中的伦理解释本质上是一种立基于正当性的价值论解释方法,它要求解释者在法律文本语义的最大化范围内,选择和适用最合乎法的制度伦理的含义。伦理解释具有基础性、历史性、体系性和开放性等基本特征,这些特征都是由它所要表达的法的制度伦理赋予并在具体解释方法中展开与呈现的。伦理解释具有局限性:一方面,对法的制度伦理的辨识往往非常复杂,具有不确定性,这就会导致依托制度伦理来解释法律的客观性、正当性发生危机;另一方面,即或已经明确了法的制度伦理,但对它的维系与坚持也具有相当的难度,特别是当法官的个人正义观与法的制度伦理发生冲突时,难度更大,在极端情况下,甚至会使法律的伦理解释成为不可能完成的任务。

Ethical interpretation in justice is essentially an axiological method based on justice. It requires the interpreter choose and apply the meanings most in line with the institutional moral of law in the maximal content scope of legal text. Ethical interpretation boasts of the basic characteristics of foundation, history, system and openness. All these charac- teristics are endowed with institutional moral of law and outspread in idiographic interpretation. Ethical interpretation has limitations, on the one hand, the recognition of the legal institutional ethics is always complex and uncertain, which will result in the crisis of objectivity and justification of interpretation; on the other hand, even though the institutional moral of law has been made certain, it is difficult to preserve. Especially, it will be more difficult to preserve when contradiction takes place between institutional moral of law and judge＇s individual value of justice. In some extreme condition, it is impossible to fulfill the tasks of ethical interpretation.