认真地对待秋审——传统中国司法“正当程序”的新诠释

Taking Autumn Assizes Seriously: A New Interpretation of “Due Process” in Chinese Traditional Judiciary

Derk Bodde和Clarence Morris认为秋审是一种不同于西方的“正当程序”的命题,具有丰富的诠释空间。从宪制意义上看,通过秋审,中央与地方之间建立起了更加紧密的联系,一方面可以促进全国司法的统一适用,另一方面得以改变律典确定法定刑主义带来的量刑僵化的弊端。在秋审中,刑部与各省之间不同于常规的审级关系,通过秋审各种《不符册》可以发现,刑部对于各省的不同意见,常采取“内商”的方式更加谨慎地处理,改判率并不算高。在刑部内部的会议上,既尊重当家堂官的意见,在决策时亦有民主的色彩,保持了一种权威与民主的平衡。

Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris believe that Autumn Assizes are different from Western “due process”, which can be interpreted further. From the perspective of constitutional significance, the central government and local government build closer relationships by the way of Autumn Assizes. On one hand, it can benefit the uniform application of the judiciary, and on the other hand, it may overcome the problem of sentencing rigidity caused by statutory sentence doctrine. The relationship between the Board of Punishment(Xingbu) and provinces is different from the conventional relationship between trial levels in light of Autumn Assizes. According to Bufuce, the Board of Punishment(Xingbu) takes the different opinions of provinces cautiously through internal negotiations, and thus the rate of changing the original sentence is not high. In the inner meeting held by the Board of Punishment(Xingbu), they respect the opinion of the senior official in charge and reach the final decision in a democratic way,which keeps the balance between authority and democracy.