民法基本原则的意义脉络

Contextual Relationships of Basic Principles of Civil Law

民法总则第3-9条列举了权益保护、平等、私人自治等八项基本原则。藉此,民事立法者以十分直观的方式表达了其意欲追求的基本价值观念或理想的社会生活蓝图。这一立法也提出了需梳理民法基本原则的意义脉络之棘手且重要的问题。民法基本原则可分为旨在实践个体性价值的基本原则与旨在实践社会性价值的基本原则两大板块。其中,权益保护、形式平等、消极自由、形式公平等具有融贯性的个体性基本原则,构成民法上最稳固、坚硬的部分,应严予坚守,以维系民法之不堕;诚实信用、合法、公序良俗、环保等社会性基本原则,是民法上柔软的部分,具有弹性与灵活性,以使民法能适应社会变迁之需要。这两者共同作用,型构出民法之整体图景。共同作用的方式并非静态的凝固不变,而是动态的相互协作,即不仅相互补充亦相互限制。个体性基本原则相较于社会性基本原则具有初显优先性,即在初步判断上,个体性基本原则具有更大的分量或权重,但此种判断嗣后可被基于更充分理由的论证所推翻。

In articles 3-9 of the General Provisions of the Civil Law,civil legislators list eight basic principles,including the protection of rights and interests,equality,private autonomy,etc.,thereby expressing in a very intuitive way the basic values that they desire to pursue and charting the blueprint of an ideal civil society life.This piece of legislation also raises the thorny and important issue of the contextual relationships of the basic principles of civil law.These basic principles can be divided into two major sections:those aimed at realizing individual values and those aimed at realizing social values.If the basic principles are understood as a set of“programs”based on the theory of“scientific research programs”by the British philosopher of science Imre Rakatos,these programs are composed of“hard cores”and“protective belts”.Among these principles,basic individual principles of rights protection,formal equality,negative freedom and formal fairness are the“hard cores”;basic social principles of good faith,legality,public policy,and environmental protection are the“protective belts”.The former constitutes the strongest and hardest part of civil law and should be strictly adhered to,so as to maintain the existence of civil law,and the latter is a soft part of civil law,with elasticity and flexibility that enable the civil law to adapt to social changes.The two work together to form an overall picture of civil law.The way they interact with each other is not static and solidified,but dynamic and cooperative,that is,not only mutually complementary,but also mutually restrictive.Basic individual principles have the prima-facie-character compared with basic social principles,that is,in the preliminary judgment,the basic principles of individuality have greater weight,but this judgment can be overthrown by an argument based on more sufficient grounds.