对法律规范本质的探析——以哈特和后期维特根斯坦的思想为基础

Legal Normativity and Following a Rule--An Interpretation based on the Connection of Hart and Later Wittgenstein

法律的规范性意味着法律能为人们合法的行动提供理由。关于规范本身,哈特和维特根斯坦关于"遵守规则"的讨论体现了思想上的共识,两人均认为规范(规则)没有形而上的"本质",规范是在后验的法律实践活动中形成和被表达出来的,它有着现实的实践来源和基础。并且法律规范会随着法律实践活动的丰富和发展而得到进一步的修正和完善。因而可从哈特和维特根斯坦思想中抽生出关于法律规范的表达主义理论。这种理论认为,法律规范是对隐含于法实践活动中的行动规则的清晰表达,这种理论也反对自然法传统所要求的法律对普遍法则负责这一任务,而支持在法实践活动中对法律规范进行动态的探究和表达。

The normativity of law consists in providing reasons for an agent’s legitimate actions.It is inspiring to detect the intimate connection of H.L.A.Hart and later Wittgenstein in their shared discussions of following a rule.It comes to see that they both confirm the assertions that norms(rules)are devoid of metaphysical essence,and they take shape in the posterior actual legal practice.Hence the legal normativity has its practical origins,and that the legal norms will get further revised and improved as the enrichment and development of legal activities.According to the expressivist theory of legal normativity,which can be deduced from Hart and later Wittgenstein’s investigations,legal norms are formal expressions of the regularities that implicit in the material legal practice.The expressivist theory also repudiates the responsibility to the universal law advocated by the natural law tradition.It endorses,by contrast,a dynamic approach to review and express the legal norm that opens itself to the seminal practice.