Legal Frontiers. Issue 5

Author: Editorial Committee of Frontiers of Law
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-10-01
Features: As a publication for intellectuals, Tianze is not only attuned to the sounds of the world—weather, books, and matters of state and home—but also deeply concerned with all aspects of the world. The difference lies in its focus on the institutional causes behind social hot issues. On one hand, it does not wish people to treat major events merely as isolated incidents or attribute their causes solely to individuals. On the other hand, it calls on intellectuals not to remain confined to their studies, for their theories, no matter how profound, lose value if they fail to contribute to solving social problems. Tianze not only aims to reflect interactions in institutional change but also to be part of the interaction, and even to play a significant role in shaping new orders.
Sheng Hong (Tianze Editor-in-Chief) Law is inherently not about being "frontier." The original concern of law is how to resolve the daily affairs of ordinary people, and what is there about daily life that is "frontier"? It is merely a series of ordinary yet potentially important or even life-altering matters. Although issues vary in scale and the people and interests involved differ, all must be addressed. Small problems can become significant for specific individuals at specific times, involving substantial interests. Therefore, law is fundamentally mundane, trivial, and even somewhat vulgar—it is about competing for reputation in court and profits in the market. In Western terms, it is the struggle "for rights." As a result, law emphasizes the rationality of ordinary people and practical reason.
However, even the most mundane matters, when repeated, accumulate some experience; even the most trivial experiences, when accumulated, may spark inspiration and lead to numerous associations. This is knowledge—a relatively stable and useful form of experience that gains market value due to social demand, and is fancy-named "jurisprudence." Yet this still has nothing to do with being "frontier." Can we say that criminal law or civil law is "frontier"? Or that constitutional law or administrative law is "rear"? Or the opposite? Even new issues in law or occasional exceptions may not necessarily be "frontier." Such issues, if not universal, can be handled as exceptions—special cases handled specially—in English called ex ce ptio n. If they become increasingly frequent, they will inevitably gradually form a new pattern for addressing such issues, creating a new category, such as the emerging field of cyber law today. It may be new, and it may have the potential, but it is still not necessarily "frontier."
The emergence of the "frontier" is related to law moving from a body of professional knowledge to being systematized, theoretical, and formalized, and to its attempt to become academic. Once any discipline begins to systematize and theorize, it must generalize and abstract, which means excluding some things and highlighting others.