致命的球赛与罗马法之继受

The Fatal Ballgame and the Modernity of Roman Law

在古罗马典籍《学说汇纂》的一段法言中,法学家乌尔比安记载了一场由理发产生的血案:如果众人玩球,其中一人使劲地把球掷在一个理发师的手上,而后者恰巧正给一个奴隶剃须,结果该奴隶的喉咙被用着的剃刀割开,谁该为奴隶的死亡负责?我们可以在古罗马法规《阿奎流斯法》中寻找答案。阿奎流斯法责任要成立,需要满足三个逐渐发展而来之要件:损害、因果关系与不法性。罗马法学家在发展出这些构成要件之同时,也归纳了一些抗辩事由。在致命的球赛中,原告如果因自身过错引发损害,他自身也无法得到任何赔偿。《阿奎流斯法》不仅是今天欧洲大陆侵权法之源头,甚至也影响了普通法。侵权责任是形塑了西方法律文明的罗马法传统之基本组成部件之一。在今天的世界,人们仍然面临着侵权案件中谁是责任承担者的问题。在20世纪,中国开始了罗马法的继受,罗马法也成为中国的私法法典化之基础。从对《学说汇纂》法言的分析中,我们可以更好地理解为何中国学者会把罗马法当作一个向导,也才能知道,只有叩响罗马法之门,法律思维能力才可以在改进和创造一个国家的实证法时发挥作用。

The barber-case has been described by Ulpian in a passage of the Digest： if some persons were playing ball and one of them, hitting the ball quite hard, knocked it against a barber＇s hands, and in this way the throat of a slave, whom the barber was shaving, was cut by a razor pressed against it, who is liable for the death of the slave？ We have to search for the answer in a Roman statute, the Lex Aquilia. Three circumstances of the Lex Aquilia＇s liability have to be cumulative given： damage, causality and unlawfully. If there is a reason of justification, the liability of the tortfeasor ceased due to the lack of un- lawfulness. In the fatal ballgame, the plaintiff recovers nothing if he was in any way at fault for causing the loss. This Roman statute, the lex Aquilia, is today the basis of tort law not only in continental Europe, but even in common law. The liability for tort is one of the fundamental ingredients coming from the Roman tradition which have shaped the Western tradi- tion of law. The question who is liable in case of tort is today quite the same today every-where in the world. The reception of Roman law has taken place in China in the twentieth century. Roman law is the basis for the codification in private law. From the analyse of the passage form the Digest we can better understand why Chinese scholars look at the Roman law as a guide and know that it is only knocking at the door of Roman law that the legal thinking can improve and create a pragmatical law for the nation.