涉外未成年人监护中的司法困境与理论思考

Judicial Dilemma and Theoretical Thinking on Foreign Minor Guardianship

未成年人是最常见的“被监护人”类型。借由中国《适用法》第30条“有利于”规则的指引,域外有利于未成年被监护人的法律应得为中国法院所用。然而《适用法》颁行十载有余,法院根据该法第30条的指引适用外域法的情况几近于零。一些判决更是有意回避“有利于”规则。此现象不可仅仅归结于司法惰怠。某些外域法看似在儿童权益保护方面更为“先进”,却是由“主体—权利”结构及“功利—理性主导”这两大西方法律文化特质演绎而来。此二者不仅无法得到国人的观念认同,更与中国传统文化的两大支撑“天人同质”和“泛伦理化”背道而驰。中西文化异质或为《适用法》第30条的选法标准难以在实践中下落的原因之一。

The minor is the most common type of wards.Article 30 of“Law of the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relations of the People’s Republic of China”requires judges to select the Law from the perspective of protecting the rights and interests of the ward.However,“Law of the Application of Law”has been enacted for more than ten years,and there are almost no cases where the court applies foreign laws in accordance with the guidelines of Article 30 of the Law.Some decisions are even more deliberately circumventing the“favorable”rule.This phenomenon cannot be simply attributed to judicial deficiency.Some foreign laws seem to be more“advanced”in the protection of children’s rights and interests,but they are derived from the two major western legal and cultural traits:“subject-right structure”and“utilitarian-rational dominance”.Not only are they unable to gain the conceptual recognition of the Chinese,but they also run counter to the two main pillars of traditional Chinese culture:“homogeneity between man and nature”and“pan-ethicalization”.The heterogeneity of Chinese and Western cultures may be one of the reasons why it is difficult to put the selection standard of Article 30 of“Law of the Application of Law”is difficult into practice.