农民的财产边界与近代中国司法的性质

The Boundary of Peasants' Property and the Nature of Judicature in Modern China

传统中国司法重在维护“差序格局”的社会秩序 ,当事人的财产诉求就自然地要退居次要的地位 ,这一特点在近代也未发生根本变化。个人不是作为独立的权利主体而存在 ,即使是地方司法官判决诉讼当事人一方得到了他应得的财产 ,那也只能称为他得到了其“既得利益”。伦理本位的关系格局、习俗调控的权力体系 ,构成了中国乡村社会的基本构造 ,它是家族本位的财产法秩序的基础 ,进而决定了近代中国司法在当时的历史空间中只能扮演行政性工具这样的角色 ,其本质在于维护伦理化的政治秩序 ,而不重私人财产的保护。

Traditional Chinese justice upheld the social rule of 'differentiation structure of social order', so the property appeal of litigants naturally withdrew to secondary position.The individual did not exist in the formof independent owner of rights.Even if law officers adjudicated that one of the litigants get his just property, we can only say that he got his 'vested interest'.The ethic based relation pattern and authority system controlled by as custom had formed the basic structure of Chinese rural society.It was the foundation of the clan standard property law order,so that modern Chinese justice could only play a part of administrational instrument in that historical space.Its essence resides in keeping ethic political order, instead of protecting private property.