中日古代神明裁判制度比较研究

The Comparison between Ancient Chinese and Ancient Japanese Trial by Ordeal Regime

神明裁判是古代司法证据制度不发达的产物,当司法官员对于原、被告双方的是非曲直难以判明时,便借助于神意来裁判。神明裁判是一种非理性的审判方式,是基于人们对原始宗教的崇拜和对自然界的无知认识而产生的。中日两国在古代法制文明初期,都有过占卜裁判的情况,后来随着两国律令法体系的建立,有效地解决了疑难案件证据不足的问题,使神明裁判失去了存在的空间。从公元13世纪以后,随着中国古代专制主义中央集权的加强和日本幕府统治的确立,儒家"无讼是求"的观念和日本法律处于秘密的状态,严重制约了诉讼审判制度的发展,中日两国几乎同时出现了神明裁判复活的迹象。

The trial by ordeal is the product of lacking judicial evidence system. When the judicial officers cannot make judgments on the rights and wrongs between plaintiff and defendant they would refer to God＇ s standards to make decisions. Obviously the trial by ordeal is an irrational method which can be attributed to people＇ s ignorance on natural and the blind adoration of primitive religion. In the early stage of ancient Chinese and ancient Japanese legal civilization, making the judgment based on divination had once appeared. With establishment and development of laws and decrees of these two countries, the problem of lacking evidence on complicated cases was solved, leaving no space for the trial by ordeal. However since the 13^th century, with the establishment of ancient Chinese centralized autocratic government and Japanese Shogunate, Confucianism＇ s ＂aiming at no lawsuit＂ was highly recommended, meanwhile Japanese law disappeared. These social phenomena seriously restricted the development of civil trail proceeding. The Trial by ordeal resurged nearly at the same time in these two countries.