违宪审查的形成过程——法国和中国的经验比较

The building process of a judicial review system:France and China experiences compared

本文主要探讨法国建立宪法司法机构和司法审查机制的漫长而曲折的进程。肇端于1789年法国大革命时期的、政治生活应当受到宪法权力约束的观点,在20世纪50年代末之前却一直饱受争议,其中由不同意识形态的思想家和政治家们歪曲的部分批评还不无见地。如今,宪法委员会使得法国成为了一个真正意义上的民主国家的观点,已经变成了广泛的共识。但自其诞生伊始,宪法委员会就远非是一个完美的机构,由此,它不得不致力于建立自己的规范,并力求获得自身的正当性。宪法委员会取得的另一个重要成就在于,它改变了宪法在法国民众心目中的形象,使得宪法从一个政治文本变为法律文本,而且是法律制度中最为重要的文本。在构建宪政型政府方面,如果将法国的历史经验与当代中国的现实进行比较,我们有理由认为中国已经完成了其中最为艰难的步骤;当下有关致力于构建宪政型政府的宪政运动即是其中一方面。就此而言,中国应当以建设性的方式考虑建立旨在维系制度间平衡的司法审查机制,中国也应借鉴国外的不同经验,因为国外本来就存在着多种形式的法治,而且西方的宪政制度本身也是相互借鉴的产物。

This article mainly deals with the long and tumultuous historical process of establishing a constitutional court and a judicial review system in France. From the 1789 French Revolution until the end of the 1950s the idea of a constitutional power as a check on political life has been fiercely contested sometimes with relevant arguments by thinkers and political actors representing a wide ideological spectrum.It is now accepted that the Constitutional Council has helped France evolve into a truly democratic country.However,it was far from a perfect institution originally;its 'imperfect birth'forced it to build its own norms and to work hard to gain legitimacy.Its other essential outcome is to have changed the ancient representation of the Constitution in the minds of French people from a political text to a legal text and the most important text in the entire legal system.By comparing the past events in France to contemporary China on the issue of building a constitutional government,one must argue that China has already undergone the hardest part of the process.The contemporary constitutional movement toward the establishment of a constitutional government is indicative.China should thus consider constructing a judicial review system so as to establish institutional equilibrium.China should not be afraid of incorporating experiences from abroad. There are various diverse types of rule of law and Western constitutional systems themselves are the products of interrelated and respective imitations.