回顾与反思:法社会学研究的不同导向

A Retrospective Review:Different Research Orientations in Sociology of Law

改革开放以来,我国法社会学研究有着不同的导向。法社会学研究的法理学导向侧重点在法律在整个社会结构中的地位和作用的理论建构,把法律看作整个社会系统中的一个有机组成部分,所关注的是理论法社会学,而不是经验研究;法社会学的比较法导向,像其他导向一样,取决于研究者的学科基础,比较法社会学包括各国的法社会学的比较研究和比较法的社会学研究。由于所掌握的材料有限,国别的法社会学只能是临时性的,而比较法的社会学建立在不同国家法律制度相互接触和相互影响的基础上,有赖于全球化的发展。法社会学的指标导向试图把研究对象指标化,通过数据、数字对不同国家或同一国家不同时期的法律现象进行比较,根据官方提供的客观数据或被调查对象的主观评价进行评估。上述三个方面的导向都取得了不小的进展,但也都存在着需要解决的问题。回归马克思主义方法论,坚持以中国问题为中心,增强文化自信基础上的理论自信是中国法社会学面临的主要问题。

Since the reform and opening up,the study of sociology of law in China has showed different orientations.The jurisprudence-oriented research of the sociology of law focuses on the theoretical construction of the status and role of law in the entire social structure.On this view,law is regarded as an organic part of the entire social system and the research focus is on the theoretical rather than the empirical research on the sociology of law.The comparative law orientation in this field,like other research orientations,depends on the researcher’s disciplinary foundation.Comparative sociology of law includes the comparative studies of sociology of law and the sociology of comparative law in various countries.Due to the limitation of materials acquired,the research on the sociology of law in different countries can only be done through some ad hoc specific projects,while the sociology of comparative law is based on the mutual contact and influence between legal systems of different countries and depends on the development of globalization.The indicator orientation of the sociology of law attempts to index the research objects,compare the legal phenomena of different countries or of the same country in different periods through data and figures,and offer evaluations according to the objective data provided by the government or the subjective evaluations made by the investigated objects.Despite a lot of progress achieved in the above three directions,there are also problems that need to be resolved.At present,the main issues facing Chinese sociology of law mainly include returning to the Marxist methodology;persisting in focusing on Chinese issues;and enhancing theoretical confidence based on the confidence in Chinese culture.