论外国法查明制度失灵的症结及改进路径——以实证与法经济学研究为视角

Fixing the Failure of Ascertainment of Foreign Law——An Empirical and Economics Study

外国法查明制度关系到特定涉外案件的法律适用。实证研究表明,即便是在《中华人民共和国涉外民事关系法律适用法》及其配套司法解释出台之后,我国法院的外国法查明与适用状况也未获大幅改观。症结主要表现为:涉及外国法查明的案子数量较少;外国法查明方法几乎均为当事人提供和外国法专家提供;最终成功查明并适用外国法的案件更是屈指可数。统计数据表明,外国法查明制度失灵的核心症结并不在法律规则本身,而在于外国法查明配套制度存在不足。结合法经济学分析,个案中外国法查明成本过高是外国法查明制度失灵的症结所在。因此,降低外国法查明成本才是解决外国法查明制度失灵的有效路径。

Ascertainment of foreign law deals with the applicable law in foreign-related cases. The empirical study shows that even after the ＂Law of the People＇s Republic of China on Choice of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relationships＂ and its related judicial interpretations have come into effect, the ascertain- ment of foreign Law in Chinese courts has not greatly improved. Such conclu- sion is confirmed by the facts that there are only a small portion of foreign-related cases that ultimately deal with ascertainment of foreign law, the proving methods are limited to the supply of parties and foreign law experts and few cases successfully prove and apply foreign laws. It is the defect of supporting mea- sures that contributes such failures. The law and economics analysis may explain that it is the high transaction cost that contributes to the failure of current system. Therefore, lowering the transaction cost should be the solution to perfect the ascertainment of foreign law system.