哈贝马斯对现代法律功能属性的定位及对转型中国法治建构的启示

Habermas's Orientation of Functional Attributes of Modern Law and Its Enlightenment to the Making of Rule of Law in Transitional China

哈贝马斯基于"内在批判"路径所建构的法哲学理论,既旨在为马克思主义填补"法学空区",亦在很大程度上为当代社会批判理论奠定了法哲学基础。他认为,现代法律作为系统与生活世界之间的一种制度化媒介,具有功能上的两重性:作为行动系统,它是现代经济系统和行政系统的制度化组织手段;作为知识/符号系统,它具有"商谈之维",是以生活世界为背景的道德—实践领域的一种表现。基于此,可以把现代法治所发挥的政治功能概括为两个方面:形成基于"规则政治"的"常态政治",建构基于"共识政治"的"公意政治"。哈贝马斯程序主义的民主观可以最大限度地鼓励像中国这样的发展中国家,在法治建构的过程中探索政治理想与实践约束条件之间的"反思性平衡",从而为探寻适合自己的法治道路(乃至整个现代转型道路)提供建设性的理论借鉴。

The discourse theory of law and democracy that Habermas develops based on the approach of"immanent critique"is aimed at filling up"the vacancy of legal science"for Marxism,and largely lay the jurisprudential foundations for critical social theory in the contemporary era as well.He maintains that modern law,as an institutional media between the"systems"and the"lifeworld",has functional attributes of duality:as an action system,it is the institutional means for organizing the economic and political systems;as a knowledge-system(symbolic system),it has a discursive dimension,which means it is a special case of practical discourse embedded in lifeworld contexts.Using Habermas’s thoughts as a starting point,political functions of modern rule of law may be summarized as follows:it can help to construct the"politics governed by general will"through"consensual politics"and shape the"normal politics"based on"politics ruled by rules".Habermasian proceduralist view of democracy,as a constructive theoretical reference for seeking Chinese road of the rule of law or even modern transformation as a whole,can encourage fullest exploration of"reflective equilibrium"between the political ideals and practical constraints(structural contexts)of Chinese rule of law.