“There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws。”
有兩種法律:公正和不公正的。每個(gè)社會(huì)成員都有責(zé)任遵守公正的法律,但更重要的是,更應(yīng)該不遵守和反抗不公正的法律。
關(guān)鍵詞:obey just lawsdisobey and resist unjust laws
論證分析
當(dāng)我們面對(duì)司法改革,提出探討司法理念時(shí),往往會(huì)以“什么是司法的公正”、 “什么是法官的美德”等這樣的形式提出問(wèn)題。這種形式的問(wèn)題所問(wèn)的是關(guān)于一般的公正和美德的問(wèn)題。在司法的實(shí)踐中,對(duì)于具體的判決,人們一般是能夠評(píng)判是否公正的,而問(wèn)題是評(píng)判有無(wú)共性呢?如果不存在,那么人們的評(píng)判又是以什么為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的呢?如果存在,那它又是怎樣存在的呢?存在于哪里?而依照西方哲學(xué)的觀點(diǎn),這種存在于我們可感知的具體事物之外的東西就是法的理念。
眾所周知,亞里土多德曾說(shuō)過(guò),要實(shí)現(xiàn)法治必須具備兩個(gè)因素:其一,所有人都服從法律;其二,被遵守的法律本身是良好的法律。 亞里土多德的說(shuō)法看似全面,但在實(shí)踐中可能并不有效。
比如什么是良法,比如有人對(duì)允許墮胎、 安樂(lè)死、 同性戀的法律持有尖銳不同的觀點(diǎn)。人認(rèn)為允許墮胎維護(hù)了女性的自身權(quán)利,允許安樂(lè)死和同性戀表現(xiàn)了對(duì)個(gè)人自由意志和愿望的尊重;有人則認(rèn)為允許墮胎是不人道的,沒(méi)有保護(hù)胎兒的生存權(quán)利,允許安樂(lè)死違背了人的生存主旨,允許同性戀則敗壞了社會(huì)的道德風(fēng)氣。在這種情況下,我們應(yīng)當(dāng)認(rèn)定誰(shuí)的觀念是正確的?
我們又依據(jù)什么權(quán)力和所謂的理性剝奪和否定另外一些人的觀念呢?此外,人們對(duì)某一事物的好壞認(rèn)識(shí)會(huì)隨時(shí)間的推移而發(fā)生變化,從前認(rèn)為良好的法律現(xiàn)在可能認(rèn)為不好,這時(shí)又怎么辦呢?
因此,當(dāng)認(rèn)為某些法律不是良好的法律時(shí),人們便會(huì)認(rèn)為自己沒(méi)有服從的義務(wù),這樣便會(huì)出現(xiàn)不服從法律的現(xiàn)象。進(jìn)而言之,堅(jiān)持“良好的法律”這一概念可能會(huì)使法治處于困難的境地。
Should we obey an unjust law? According to the theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th century French political philosopher, in a democratic society the state represents the general will of the citizens, and that in obeying its laws each citizen is pursuing his own real interests. Thus, in an ideal state, laws express the general will. An individual who disagrees with a law must be failing to look at things from the moral standpoint. Rousseau is talking about an ideal state where laws express people's general will, a will that aims at the common good. But the question is: are we living in an ideal state and do all the laws of our land express the common will of the people and should we obey all the laws even if they are unjust? Thenswer to this question can be different for different people.