达特茅斯学院案与美国高等教育的公私之辨

Dartmouth College Case and the Public-Private Distinction in American Higher Education

达特茅斯学院案是美国高等教育史上的重要事件,在该案的意义和影响方面,国内学者几乎一致认为它划分了美国高等教育的公私界限。然而,这个结论却缺乏一定的历史根据。本文通过运用史料和国外研究成果,基于对文献的分析和史实的考察,重新认识关于该案划分公私界限的历史评价。本文认为,该案的关键不在于高等教育的公私性质而是对财产权的保护,案件最后的判决只是对高等教育的公私性质做出了模糊的界定而没有在事实上划分高等教育的公私界限,美国高等教育甚至从一开始就没有清晰的公私性质之分,马歇尔和联邦最高法院关于公私问题的论述已经被很多研究者和大法官所抛弃。公立和私立这种看待美国高等教育的二元维度应该被纠正,美国的学院和大学在很大程度上是多种社会力量共同作用的产物而从未被单一力量所主导。

The U.S.Supreme Court decision Trustees of Dartmouth College v.Woodward(1819) is an important event in the history of American higher education.Scholars in China almost unanimously think that this case has marked the boundaries of public and private higher education in America.However,this conclusion is not supported by historical facts.Drawing upon historical materials and foreign research results,this paper reconsiders the role and significance of the Dartmouth case in American higher education.The paper suggests the key issue of this case is not the public-private nature of higher education,but rather the protection of property.The Dartmouth case ruling did not clearly draw a line between the public and the private in American higher education.Indeed,the boundary between American public and private higher education has never been clearly marked from the beginning.Justice Marshall's opinion on the public-private divide has often confounded many judges and scholars.The dichotomy between public and private higher education should be abandoned.American colleges and universities largely are the products of interaction of a variety of social forces,and never dominated by a single power.