论慎刑理念对古代司法运行机制的影响

On Influences about Idea of Careful Criminal Punishment to Ancient Judicial System

慎刑理念作为中国传统司法文化的重要组成部分,是传统司法文化中最能够代表主流司法理念的内容。所谓"慎刑"就是主张在适用法律、实施刑罚时应该审慎、宽缓,无论立法、司法都必须崇德,施用刑罚要慎重从事。儒家秉持的人本主义,"仁政"理念,为政以德和"执中致和"等思想是慎刑理念发展延续的理论基础。慎刑理念主要在司法机构设置、司法官吏的执法要求和违法责任的追究、司法审判方式和原则、诉讼审判程序等方面对古代司法制度的设计与运行产生了十分重要的影响。研究这种理念、制度的发生和存在的意义在于不仅可以加深我们对中国传统司法文化特征及其历史价值的认识,而且对于我们如何在当代的社会主流文化中创新与时代发展相适应的司法理念和司法制度,具有启示意义。

The idea of careful criminal punishment is one vital part of traditional Chinese judicial culture, a representative of the mainstream thought in traditional judicial culture. The coral spirit of careful criminal punishent is the proposition that whenever a law is enforced and a form of punishment is imposed, doing so needs due deliberation and leniency; that both legislation and judiciary should submit to the moral principles, and special at- tention should be paid to enforcement of punishment. The Confucian thoughts like humanism, the idea of ＂humanistic governance＂, to govern by morality and the idea of ＂harmony by way of balance＂ are the ground stone for the ideas of careful criminal punishment to survive in history. The important influences that the ideas of careful criminal punishment have cast upon the judicial system are salient in respect of judicial institutions, attribution of responsi- bilities for judicial officials, the ways and principles of judicial adjudication, as well as the procedures. The value that study of these ideas may generate is that our knowledge about traditional Chinese judicial culture and its historical value will thus be deepened, and it is also enlightening for us who are in the middle of the mainstream of the current social and cultural movements to reshape our judicial ideas and institutions and bring them up to the date.