近代司法研究的个案方法及其运用

Case Study Method and Its Application in the Study of Modern Judiciary

个案研究具有整体性、深入性、综合性和双重性等特征。如何面对个案研究的"代表性"困境,学界存在着无涉论、分类论和超越论三种观点。侯欣一教授在对民国时期西安地方法院的个案研究中,通过对典型性条件的相对满足,以及关系视角下"开放的司法"特征的捕捉,较好地实现了对个案研究局限性的超越。个案研究方法的科学运用,不仅对近代司法研究具有范式意义,而且为法律史研究中科学方法的探索积累了有益的经验。

The Case study possesses four features:integrity,sophistication,comprehensiveness,and duality.Regarding the predicament of representativeness in case study,there are three theories,which are the no-involvement theory,the classification theory,and the surpassing theory.In the case study applied by Professor Hou Xinyi on the Xian District Court in the Republican period,it is demonstrated that,through relatively meeting the requirement of typicality and fulfilling the"openness of justice"feature from the perspective of relationships,the limitation of case study can be overcome.The application of case study method not only has paradigmatic value in the study of modern judiciary,but also accumulates beneficial experience in the study of legal history at large.