祛魅公共利益:基于“价值——工具”法律利益分类范式

The Disenchantment of Public Interest: The “Value-Tool” Classification Paradigm of Legal Interests

何谓公共利益,公共利益在法律利益体系中的地位、角色和边界如何?是一个极具现实重要性,又兼具理论争议性的法学命题与法律适用问题,中外皆然,历久弥新。在传统主流法理学的利益分类理论中,公共利益常常与个体利益、社会利益及国家利益并列而用。该利益分类理论模式及其制度成果,直接导致公共利益被人为地戴上了一幅普洛透斯(Proteus)面具,使得理论研究者和实务应用者困入了具有迷幻色彩的公共利益"罗生门"。在批判继承传统法律利益分类学说的基础上,尝试借助"价值—工具"两层次法律利益分类范式,透过概念辨析和假设检验等方法,对公共利益及其在法律利益体系中的地位、角色和边界进行再解读。作者认为,公共利益和私人利益是价值形态的利益存在;个体利益、社会利益以及国家利益等则属于工具形态的利益存在。价值形态利益和工具形态利益之间互相映射,但二者不可化约等列。最后,借助部门法语境中的公共利益及其变种形态,验证了"价值—工具"法律利益分类范式,并进一步揭示了法律利益体系中公共利益的具体表现形式。以期为打开长久困扰人们的公共利益"罗生门",提供一把可能的方法论钥匙。

What is public interests, and what are its status, role, and boundaries in the legal interests system?It has been a practical and controversial legal proposition at home and abroad. According to the interests classification theory of traditional mainstream jurisprudence, public interests is often used in parallel with individual interests, social interests and national interest, which leads to the result that a Proteus Masque has been worn on the public interest. This theoretical model and its institutional results has become a Rashomon(confusion) to the researchers and implementers. By inheriting it critically, this paper utilizes the'valuetool'two-level classification paradigm of legal interests to reinterpret public interests and its status, role and boundaries in the legal interests system through concept discrimination and hypothesis testing. The author argues that the public interest and the private interest are the interests of value form, while the individual interests, the social interests and the national interests belong to the existence of tool form interests. The interests of value form and tool form are mapped to each other, but they cannot be reduced. With the help of public interests and its variant in the context of department law, the paper verifies the'value-tool'classification paradigm and scrupulously reveals the concrete manifestation of'public interests'in the legal interests system. In this sense, it can serve as a methodology to understand what public interests is.