“法律信仰”危机与选择:伯尔曼的问题与方案

Crisis and Choice of“Law Belief”:Berman's Problem and Program

在法律能否被信仰的争论中,大多数批评意见并未针对伯尔曼在《法律与宗教》中所面对的问题本身。在阐释西方法律所面对的危机时,伯尔曼是从整体性的角度来进行回应的,而法律的整体性危机与法律的规范性问题也紧密相连。不同于其他论述法整体性的思想家,伯尔曼采用历史主义的方法,并将法律与宗教做了类比,由此在法律信仰的基础上把握作为整体的法律。伯尔曼以法律信仰来克服整体性问题,用超越性视角来统摄法律的事实与实践,这是将规范性诉诸于信仰的方案。回溯法律整体性危机产生的思想脉络,厘清其中概念间的相互关联,或许有益于澄清"法律信仰"命题在中国语境下的应有之意。

In the debate of whether law can be believed in, most of the criticisms are not di- rected at the problems that Berman faced in Law and Religion. In explaining the crisis of West- ern law, Berman responds from a holistic point of view, while the legal crisis of integrity and the normative nature of law are also closely linked. Unlike other thinkers, Berman uses the method of historicism and analogizes law and religion, thereby grasping the law as a whole on the basis of law belief. Berman, overcomed the problem of integrity with law belief, codified the facts and practice of law with a transcendent perspective, set an example for normative recourse to the pro- gram of faith. It may be helpful to clarify the proper meaning of the proposition of ＂law belief＂ under Chinese context by tracing back the ideological context of the crisis of integrity and clarif- ying the interrelation among concepts.