重新思考古罗马与近现代西方法治的关系  

Rethinking the Relationship between Ancient Rome and Modem Rule of Law

作　　者：罗洪洋[1] 

机构地区：[1]中南财经政法大学法学院

出　　处：《环球法律评论》2015年第6期8-16,共9页Global Law Review

摘　　要：学界将西方法律和法治传统追溯到古罗马的观点是大可质疑的,有必要重新思考古罗马与近现代西方法治的关系。古罗马政制在相当长的时段里体现出国家至上的特点,缺乏个人自由、平等、权利保护等近现代法治的基本要件;罗马法的继受是欧洲中世纪政教权力斗争和绝对主义国家的产物,罗马法所提供的最重要资源是君主的绝对权力理论;作为一种制度的法治是近现代西方价值选择的结果,与传统关联不大。西方主要国家确立资本主义法治后,希腊罗马成为其可资利用的重要资源。近现代西方一整套法治理论是几代欧洲学者人为建构的一个精心编织的"无视历史"的法治神话和故事,神话的源头是洛克等人拟就的自然状态论和社会契约论,为西方现代国家政权奠定了合法性基础;黑格尔等人则是神话和故事的续写者,他们承担了将西方法治文化绝对化、普遍化的任务。Academia generally traces modern rule of law back to ancient Rome, which is by no means without doubt. This thesis rethinks the relationship between ancient Rome and the rule of law in the modern West. While supremacy of the state or sovereign rights character- ized Roman law for a long time, traces are scanty in the Roman legal system of such basic ele- ments of modern rule of law as personal freedom, equality and protection of rights. The accept- ance of Roman law was due to the power struggle between the church and the state in the Middle Ages, during which Europe heavily drew on the notion of the absolute power of the sovereign that constituted the theoretical basis of Roman law. Rather than born out of Roman traditions, the rule of law, as an institution, was the result of the value choice of the modern West. Ancient Rome and Greece became important resources available for leading European countries after the establishment of a capitalist rule of law. The entire set of modern Western legal and political theories are in fact a myth purposefully constructed by generations of European academ- ics. While John Locke and others created the myth with their concepts of the state of nature and social contract as the legal basis for modern Western states, it was Hegel and others who contin- ued the myth by absolutizing and generalizing the culture of Western rule of law

关 键 词：古罗马 西方 法治 法治神话 

分 类 号：D904.1[政治法律—法学理论] D909.1[政治法律—法学]