元首制时代的罗马宪法文本研究——以《韦斯巴芗谕令权法》为依据

A Study of Principate Era's Roman Constitutional Law: Based on Lex de Imperio Vespasian

《韦斯巴芗谕令权法》是西方世界保留下来的最古的较完整宪法文本,其发现证明了"罗马公法不存在或虽存在但无价值论"的错误。该法被铭刻在两块铜表上,第一块铜表佚失,得到保留的第二块铜表包括8个条文外加一个制裁,它授予韦斯巴芗皇帝外交权、元老院会议主持权、召开元老院会议通过法律权、官吏推荐权、城界外推权、自由裁量权、免受一定法律约束权等权力,还包括溯及力条款和免责规定。该法确定了元首制时代皇帝与元老院的权力分配关系,是长期存在的王权法的一个例证。尽管该法表现了皇权扩张的趋势,但仍维持了皇帝在法律之下的西方宪政传统。

Lex de Imperio Vespasiani is the most ancient and comparatively complete constitutional law text in the Western world whose discovery has proved the saying incorrect that Rome public law does not exist,or exists but is of no value.The law is inscribed in two bronze tables the first of which seems missing while in the second there are,apart from a sanction,a clause relating to retrospective affairs and an immunity rule,eight provisions that invested the Emperor Vespasian powers to settle diplomatic affairs,preside senate meetings,convene the senate meeting to make laws,recommend official candidates,expand the bounds of the Roman city,exercise discretion,and be free from certain legal constraints.The Lex,while determining distribution of powers between the emperor and the senate in the era of principate,is a good illustration of existence lex regia in a long period.Though in it incarnated a tendency of expansion of imperial power,it still maintained the Western constitutional tradition that the emperor was subject to the law.