美国法律过程学派对现实主义法学挑战的回应

On the Response of Legal Process School to Legal Realism's Challenge

现实主义法学的价值相对主义立场与经验主义研究方法对自兰德尔以来的古典正统体系所捍卫的自由主义法治提出了挑战。法律过程学派通过提出"制度解决的原则",将法的合法性建立于程序之上,并以"制度能力"为基石建构其理论框架,通过对司法"理性阐述"过程的强调来彰显司法的比较优势并以此区别和协调其与立法、行政及私人秩序之间的关系,对宪法审查的"反多数难题",则提出了"中立原则"的解决方法。二十世纪六十年代以后,法律过程学派随着美国社会基本共识的破裂而迅速衰落,但该学派的诸多理论立场在美国学界至今仍受重视。

Legal Realists＇ value relativism and empiricism challenged the legitimacy of legal liberalism which was defended by Langdell＇s classical orthodoxy. Legal process school developed the ＂principle of institutional settlement＂ seeking to restore law＇s legitimacy in process, worked out a grand synthesis under the notion of ＂institutional competence＂, emphasized ＂reasoned elaboration＂ in judicial decision making, distinguished adjudication from legislation, administration and private ordering through this comparative advantage, and offered ＂neutral principle＂ to resolve the counter-majoritarian problem in judicial review. After 1960s, legal process school declined rapidly with the explosion of ideological consensus in American society, but many of its views are still respected in American legal academics.