民间规则的司法识别:程序、内容与机制

The Identification of the Civil Norms:Procedures,Content and Mechanism

当下我国的司法审判中经常出现这样的问题:法官在审理复杂疑难的案件时,面对国家法的空白、漏洞、不足时,如何对民间规则进行司法识别与适用,并作出适当的审判。一起婚姻家庭案件的司法审判过程表明,我国司法审判的法源是国家法,民间规则的司法适用只是为了填补国家法的漏洞,应当严格适用条件,防止滥用,因此,民间规则的司法适用必须进行识别程序,这个识别程序包括民间规则的主张、举证以及查明三个环节,其中当事人与法官承担着不同的责任:当事人主张存在某项民间规则并予以举证;法官识别与适用该项民间规则。法官对民间规则的识别内容包括规范识别与效力识别两个方面。在相关的制度设计上,我国应当建立民间规则的司法识别机制,主要包括设立法官识别民间规则的标准、以民间规则的汇编建立案例指导制度等。

Nowadays judicial trials are often confronted with the question of how to identity and apply civil norms to facilitate appropriate judgment making when hearing difficult cases in the presence of missing, vulnerable, or insufficient state law. A judicial trial process of a marital family case showed that source of law in China is state law and judicial application of folk law is to fill legal loopholes. Therefore, strict conditions should apply to prevent the abuse of civil norms. Accordingly, identification procedures must be undertaken when applying civil norms to judicial practices. The identification process involves three steps： claim, proof and verification, where the parties and judges assume different responsibilities. The privy who claims the civil norms bears the burden of proof. It＇ s the judge＇ s duty to ascertain and apply the appropriate civil norms. Identification of civil norms involves recognition of the norm and its legality. In terms of institutional design, China should establish the mechanism of judicial recognition of the civil norms, including introducing the standards of the identification and compiling civil norms to guide their application with case studies.