从习俗到法律的转化看中国社会的宪制化进程

A Review of the Constitutionalization of the Chinese Society in a Historical Perspective of Its Legal Tradition

根据习俗经济、惯例经济和宪制化经济这种人类社会经济历史演化的三分法,本文在西方法律传统与传统中华法系的对比中考察了中国社会在近现代没有自发地型构出法治化的市场经济制序的文化历史原因。从对法理学中历史学派理论观点的审视和对世界法制史的回顾中,本文首先发现,所有法律作为调规着人们社会行为的正式规则体系都有一个现实基础,即社会习俗和惯例。英美普通法的运作机制则更明确地表明了这一点,就连欧洲大陆制定法传统也不例外。法律源于习俗和惯例,这一事实绝不否定人的理性在一个组织的制度化或整个社会宪制化过程中的建设性使命。在最后一节中,本文还从东西方法律传统的对比和分析中探讨了数千年来传统中国礼俗社会得以维系的文化原因。

Based on the three stages of customary economy,conventional econo- my and constitutionalized economy in the evolution of social institutions in human history,this paper investigates the cultural and historical roots the fact that the tra- ditional Chinese society could not develop a modem market economy with a systema- tical legal framework itself in its long history from a comparison of the traditional Chinese legal system with the Western legal tradition.Following the standpoints of the Historical School in Jurisprudence and some historical reviews of legal tradi- tions of other societies,this paper firstly finds that all laws and other legal rules should have some foundations in social reality,i.e.,social customs and conven- tions in human activities.This could be clearly found not only in the Anglican-Ame- rican tradition of common law,but also in the practice of the European tradition of statute law.This paper also finds that the fact that every law should have a founda- tion of social reality does not deny the role of human rationality in the formation of institutional rules.In the final part of the paper,the fundamental causes of preser- vation of the traditional Chinese society are explored from a comparison of the tra- ditional Chinese legal system with the Western legal tradition.