从法律信仰到法律信任——基于伯尔曼《法律与宗教》的思考

From Legal Belief to Legal Trust--Based on the Thoughts on Berman’s The Interaction of Law and Religion

在面对中国社会信任度不断下滑、法律不能切实有效实施这一问题时,有的学者求助于法律信仰,有的学者则认为应当构建法律信任。法律信仰在中国语境下的解读超过了伯尔曼提出的“法律必须被信仰,否则它将形同虚设”的含义。伯尔曼提出的法律信仰虽然与宗教紧密相关,但是并未要求人们像信仰宗教一样虔诚地信仰法律。他主张对待法律既要投入理性,又要投入情感依赖,这在中国同样适用。既包含理性又涵盖情感依赖的法律信任应当是解决中国法治实际问题的更好选择。提高法律确定性、完善集体诉讼制度并持续有效进行权力监督是增加人们对法律信任的可行方式。

Facing the continuously decreasing trust in Chinese society results in that the law cannot be practically and effectively implemented,some scholars resort to legal belief,while others hold that legal trust should be built.Legal belief is explained in Chinese context beyond Berman’s notion that the law must be faith,otherwise it will be useless.Although the legal belief proposed by Berman is closely related to the religion,it does not require people to believe in the law as devoutly as they believe in the religion.Berman proposes that we should treat the law rationally and emotionally,which is also applicable in China.It is the best approach to handle practical problems in the rule of law in China to entitle legal belief with ration and emotional dependency.It is the feasible way to increase people’s trust in law to enhance legal certainty,perfect class action system and supervise on the power continuously and effectively.