| The confusion with which I am dealing besets confessedly legal conceptions. 我承认，颇感困惑的是，我正在处理的法律概念，先例原则始终困绕。Take the fundamental question, What constitutes the law? You will find some 我们从基本概念出发吧。什么是法律？你必然会发现，text writers telling you that it is something different from what is decided by 教科书作家所告诉你的皆是错的，他们说马塞诸色州的判决，the courts of Massachusetts or England, that it is a system of reason, that it 与英国依先例的判决有所不同；他们说法律是一个推理系统；is a deduction from principles of ethics or admitted axioms or what not, which 他们说法律是道德原则的递减，或说是承认规则，或其他什么，may or may not coincide with the decisions. But if we take the view of our 教科书作家的这些话，与法院依循先例的判决，或一致或不一致。我确实想采取一种观friend the bad man we shall find that he does not care two straws for the 点，即违法者的观点，他们不关心两根救命稻草，axioms or deductions, but that he does want to know what the Massachusetts or 即法学原理与违背道德，而他们确实想了解以塞诸色州的判决与英国先例判决是否一致，English courts are likely to do in fact. I am much of this mind. The prophecies 他们更相信神圣的先例原则。我作为法官更站在他们一边，因为法学家易变。of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious, are what I 法院所依据的神圣的先例原则究竟是什么，或一无所有，我以为此正是法律。mean by the law.Take again a notion which as popularly understood is the widest conception 我不打绕，我干脆坦白一下心里痕迹，说一个合理的可理解的概念，——就是法律包括which the law contains — the notion of legal duty, to which already I have 的，就是司法义务与法律义务与法学权利，就是我已经提到的。referred. We fill the word with all the content which we draw from morals. But 我心中充满此类词汇，就是道德蕴含的词汇。what does it mean to a bad man? Mainly, and in the first place, a prophecy that 我作法律人，我不知我是不是坏人。首先，if he does certain things he will be subjected to disagreeable consequences by 依循神圣的先例原则，他犯罪，他将遭受不愉快的惩罚，way of imprisonment or compulsory payment of money. But from his point of view, 诸如下狱或被强制罚款。从这种观点看，what is the difference between being fined and taxed a certain sum for doing a 因犯罪而罚钱，与因办企业上税，是否是一回事？certain thing? That his point of view is the test of legal principles is proven 依此观点，依循先例的判决被证明是一种严格责任，by the many discussions which have arisen in the courts on the very question 它无论是在法庭还是犯罪者心里，皆是如此，whether a given statutory liability is a penalty or a tax. On the answer to 法律责任是司法义务还是体面的抽税？this question depends the decision whether conduct is legally wrong or right, 对此问题的回答，决定于神圣的先例原则，是合法性错误，还是神圣不可更改？and also whether a man is under compulsion or free. Leaving the criminal law on 也是于此人是在监禁中还是自由民。我们将刑法放置一边，one side, what is the difference between the liability under the mill acts or 考虑一下道德，违法与尊守法律哪一个代价更大一些，法律是保护哪一方面，statutes authorizing a taking by eminent domain and the liability for what we 此决定于法规法令的实施效果，与最高立法机关的立法原意。call a wrongful conversion of property where restoration is out of the 你们休要在法律与道德之间耍机巧。question. In both cases the party taking another man's property has to pay its 如果有一案例，一当事人侵点别人财产，fair value as assessed by a jury, and no more. What significance is there in 他是按陪审团的估算赔付，还是不再追究。 一个权利被侵犯，calling one taking right and another wrong from the point of view of the law? 是求助于法律与司法，还是寻找自力救济？It does not matter, so far as the given consequence, the compulsory payment, is 无论如何，仡今的已有结论是，强行赔付，是必须，concerned, whether the act to which it is attached is described in terms of 或法律只是当事人与法律人聊天，praise or in terms of blame, or whether the law purports to prohibit it or to 或作道德遣责，或法律对于此案件是禁止还是允许。allow it. If it matters at all, still speaking from the bad man's point of 无论如何，我们还是从坏人的观点看问题，view, it must be because in one case and not in the other some further 在一个案件是如此，在别外一个案件又是如此，对当事人都是损害，disadvanes, or at least some further consequences, are attached to the act 我们不竟要问法令与法律的意义。by law. The only other disadvanes thus attached to it which I ever have been 法律对当事人的损害，如我霍姆斯在上面暗示的，able to think of are to be found in two somewhat insignificant legal doctrines, 一是决定于当事人对神圣先例原则的信同，或依赖，both of which might be abolished without much disturbance. One is, that a 两者将消除当事人的麻烦。一是契约禁止违反，另外一个是，contract to do a prohibited act is unlawful, and the other, that, if one of two 一旦违反，给当事造成损害，侵害者之一将赔付，or more joint wrongdoers has to pay all the damages, he cannot recover 他将不追索同伴，而表示侠义精神。contribution from his fellows. And that I believe is all. You see how the vague 我确信这是神圣先例原则的一切。你看到，模糊的法律义务概念，circumference of the notion of duty shrinks and at the same time grows more 是在你们的追问中浓缩清楚，并愈来愈简洁珍贵，precise when we wash it with cynical acid and expel everything except the 我借此表明，我们法律人的大公无私，object of our study, the operations of the law.神圣先例原则在案例中的应用，不源于法学研究，和司法信仰与运作。 |
