法律边疆地区的纠纷解决与职业系统

Dispute Resolution and the System of Professions in the Frontier of the Legal Services Market

本文基于对我国农村地区法律服务状况的访谈和参与观察,通过对职业社会学管辖权冲突理论的改造应用,发现在我国的法律边疆地区,包括律师、基层法律工作者、司法助理员、"赤脚律师"乃至乡镇干部和村干部在内的各种法律服务提供者构成了一个相互关联的、分化成县城、乡镇、村落三层的法律职业层级系统。这一层级系统内部的劳动分工与互动过程不仅构成了国家与乡土社会之间纠纷解决的传导机制,而且塑造了我国农村地区法律职业的基本样态,是律师业在法律边疆地区发展缓慢的一个根本原因。

Based on interviews and participant observation on legal services in rural China,this article revises the jurisdictional conflict theory in the sociology of professions and finds that,in the frontier areas of the Chinese legal system,various legal services providers,including lawyers,basic-level legal workers,judicial assistants,'barefoot lawyers' and township and village cadres,constitute an interdependent three-layer (i.e.,county town,township,and village) hierarchical system of legal occupations. The division of labor and interaction in this hierarchical system not only constitute the transferring mechanism of dispute resolution between the state and rural society,but also shape the basic forms of legal occupations in rural China. It is the fundamental reason for the slow development of lawyers in the frontier areas of the legal system.