伦理豁免:法治中国的传统因子

Ethics Exemption:The Traditional Element of the Rule of Law in China

伦理豁免纵贯中华伦理、中华法系,横通"作证豁免权"等现代法律制度,会通伦理和法律关系、民族精神和时代精神,渊源深、土壤厚、生命力强。因此在功能意义上,它从消极防御、积极建设两方面直接敦睦伦理,最终从根本上调谐社会秩序,为法治中国培育积极因子。对每个人及其家庭而言,伦理豁免是有权敦睦伦理的优先权,是人道而公道的;在民间,伦理豁免经由家族自治、乡村绅士自治、行业自治等一步步发育出基层自治,由内而外、自下而上培育法治生长点;在制度上,伦理豁免适度限制公权力,保护伦理权,保障伦理圆满和绵延,在家和国、伦理和政治法律之间确定边界,防止国对家的挤压甚至侵犯,防止法律、政治等公权力对伦理私权利的不当介入和非法侵害。

Ethics exemption, a pillar of Chinese ethics and Chinese law system, also a fundamental basis of ＂testifying privilege＂ in modern legal system, offers a connection between ethics, law, and the spirit of a nation or an age. In terms of function, its long history has provided it with the background and vigor to serve both as passive defense and active construction towards healthy ethics relationships, thus benefiting a harmonious social order in the long run. For the individual and family, ethics exemption means that everyone has the priority to promote ethics and serve justice. In civil life, ethics exemption has evolved from family sovereignty, country gentry sovereignty and guild sovereignty to the stage of grassroot sovereignty, cultivating the rule of law from within and from bottom up. In ruling system, ethics exemption restrains public power in a proper way, secures ethics rights, and ensures the consistency of ethics. It sets the boundary between family and state, ethics and law, which prevents the state from pressing, even invading families, and public power （law and politics） from improperly intervening in or unlawfully violating individual rights.