最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的现状、困境与出路——兼对我国《立法法》第99条第1款解释

The Current Situation,Dilemma and Solutions of the Supreme People’s Court in the Constitutional Review--Also on the Interpretation of Paragraph 1 of Article 99 of the Legislation Law

我国《立法法》预设了最高人民法院提请全国人大常委会进行合宪性审查的路径。从现有裁判文书来看,最高人民法院在实践中并未遵循我国《立法法》所预设的路径,而是在绝大多数案件中回避了合宪性审查诉求,同时又在个别案件中进行了合宪性审查,陷入了完全回避与直接审查的两难困境。造成这种困境的原因在于,我国《立法法》对最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的权力基础、权力行使程序缺乏清晰的规定。对此,亟待通过法律解释进行明确和细化,否则最高人民法院将无章可循,无法贸然提请全国人大常委会进行合宪性审查。为了化解最高人民法院面对的这一困境,有必要对我国《立法法》第99条第1款进行解释,推导出该条款在授予最高人民法院提请审查权时,还隐含着另一项未被释明的权力即预审权,其共同构成最高人民法院在合宪性审查中的权力基础;同时,为了使预审权与提请审查权的行使制度化,有必要对其行使程序进行细化,建立起预审-提请审查机制。

The Legislation Law presets an approach for the Supreme People’s Court to request the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress to conduct constitutional review.However,it is found from the existing judgments that the Supreme People’s Court does not follow the approach preset in the Legislation Law in practice,but avoid the request for constitutional review in most cases,and at the same time conduct constitutional review in individual cases,thus being in a dilemma between thorough avoidance and direct review.The reason for creating such dilemma lies in the lack of clear regulation in the Legislation Law on the power basis and exercising procedure for the Supreme People’s Court to proceed constitutional review,which should be clarified and refined through legal interpretation,otherwise there is no rules for the Supreme People’s Court to follow,to appropriately apply to the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress to conduct constitutional review.In order to resolve the dilemma confronted by the Supreme People’s Court,it is necessary to interpret Paragraph 1 of Article 99 of the Legislation Law and draw a conclusion that when this article endow the Supreme People’s Court with the power to request a review,this power inevitably implies another unspoken power,i.e.Pre-examination Power,and both of them jointly constitute the power basis of Supreme People’s Court in the constitutional review.Meanwhile,in order to institutionalize the exercise of pre-examination power and power to request a review,it is necessary to refine the procedures and establish the pre-examination and review requesting mechanism.