Monday, January 24, 2011

King Triumph The law and cultural root causes of the lack of dignity

 King Triumph professor at Nanjing University

beginning of this year, the biggest piece of news from the Central Plains. When farmers in Henan Jianfeng Yuzhou 3.68 million toll evasion, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Just as people for the price of tolls is to count the speechless wonder, this sentence is talking about how the sub-contractors, the defendant surrendered his brother came out, saying his brother was for their own lid pocket. If such a ruling is still Pai An Jing Qi, then such a miscarriage of justice will be big scandal.

Spring Festival which will have such a wonderful sketches? China's farmers to the edge is too, too humorous, and the flicker, so that the local judiciary face sweeps. After the scandal, the higher authorities that the review of the trial judge did not fine, take strict laws undermined the dignity and credibility of the judiciary to decide on the relevant personnel to be accountability. This is of course necessary treatment measures, but in my opinion, the lack of credibility of the judiciary is not entirely due to professional quality of judges is not high, and the fundamental reason is because the law there is no dignity, so that even many judges of the law are the lack of awe .

I think, this can also be a deeper discussion. On the surface, this is the case with the disregard for human life, but in fact with our knowledge of the relevant rule of law. As Hannah Arendt said, the modern state power and the source of the law is different. Source of power is the bottom-up, the source of the law is in, there is a metaphysical value of the root causes. This is because the modern state's legal philosophy is the right doctrine, the law developed to protect civil rights, and civil rights from natural law. Where in Locke, natural law is ultimately pushed to God that, so the previous translated into The source of power, it is conferred by all rights holders to protect everyone's rights.

traditional Chinese, by contrast, are the source of power since ancient times, the so-called The law is derived from the root, ie tubes called Legalists are his words, but that is not the rule of law governing law. Shang Yang said: obligation not only the right, the law subjects are often very harsh, people are May Fourth New Culture Movement, the new intellectuals as an accomplice to authoritarian Confucianism, Legalism is two thousand years in fact, a hotbed of tyranny.

today, although the law stipulates that the citizens have many rights, but in fact, all these years we are engaged in the legal system (rule bylaw), rather than the rule of law (rule oflaw). Which we have been unaware of their problems. The value of the source of the law, this is the modern If the source of the next legal value, the agent who the subject is actually a power, so the law becomes a tool to protect the vested interests. In this case, whether officials or people in the eyes of the law are the lack of absolute sanctity, naturally there is no dignity to speak of.

recent years, there is growing lack of confidence in the law, many people do not trust the court handling the case, still believe that only administrators can solve the problem. For in order to establish a genuine rule of law, this is a sad phenomenon. The reason this phenomenon is not the people, not the traditional cultural psychology, but rather the lack of some judges fear the heart of the law.

as the representative of China to the great tradition of Confucian culture, indeed the lack of law in the highest position in the value system, but in a small traditional culture, but it always contains the elements of modern jurisprudence. For example in recent years, people like to say the phrase in the civil consciousness of those in power. In the past, people have a saying:

But if, as some officials as the heart has no fear, for China to establish a genuine rule of law is difficult to carry on.

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