Legal Exploration

Author: Sun Guohua
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-10-01
Features: This collection of essays is titled The Quest for Legal Principles, which is derived from the meaning of "The path of the rule of law is long, and I will seek above and below." However, if we focus on the academic purpose and core ideas of the entire collection to choose a title, I think using the title of one of the essays, The Rule of Law: The Best Choice for National Governance Strategy, would be more appropriate. Indeed, since I entered the field of law fifty years ago, my teaching and research have been full of ups and downs, almost entirely centered around this topic. Whether socialist countries need law? What position should law hold? Should the rule of law be implemented? These are actually important aspects of the broader question of what socialism is and how to build socialism. Thanks to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, I have been given the correct methodological principles for observing issues, allowing me to basically adhere to the right direction in this matter. From the very first formally published article, I argued the role of the rule of law in socialist construction, emphasizing the significance of adhering to the law and consciously abiding by it; the rectification of chaos and the restoration of order recognized and demonstrated the inheritance of law, adapting to the requirements of the new era, and raised and demonstrated the dialectical unity of the class nature, popular nature, social nature, scientific nature, justice, national legal system, and the conscious compliance of residents in socialist law. I argued the social public function of law but did not absolutize its contradiction with the class ruling function, adhering to the principles on the class nature of law expounded by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto, and made innovations in fundamental theories such as the phenomenon and essence of law, content and form, law and interests, and the value of law. I proposed the theory that law is the combination of "reason" and "force," the formula that rights are the legitimate power, and early advocated distinguishing and correctly using the terms and concepts of "rule of law" and "rule by law." I published a series of papers, articles, and monographs arguing that the rule of law is the best choice for national governance strategy. This collection of essays begins with the argument for the rule of law and ends with the argument that the rule of law is the best choice for national governance strategy. The development of Chinese jurisprudence and legal theory, like the development of the socialist cause led by our Party, has been a tortuous path. My personal teaching and academic career seems to have been swayed along this uneven and bumpy road. It is encouraging that our Party has correctly summarized its lessons learned and achieved new theoretical results, namely, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Important Thought of "Three Represents." It is encouraging that we have correct fundamental theories, fundamental lines, fundamental programs, fundamental experiences, and fundamental governance strategies, that we have upheld the foundation of our state, found the path to a strong nation, and determined the basic governance strategy. For myself, I can take comfort in the fact that under the guidance of the Party, the nurturing of the people, and the encouragement and motivation of many comrades and students, I have never dared to be lazy, abandoned the post I upheld, deceived myself, or deceived others. I have been conducting serious and conscientious exploration in theory and academia. I believe that Marxism is science and also humanity's highest ideal, and I firmly believe that only socialism can save China and only socialism can save humanity. I believe that only by adhering to the leadership of the Communist Party armed with Marxism and dedicated to serving the people wholeheartedly can the socialist cause and the cause of human liberation achieve victory. Temporary setbacks in the socialist cause are not to be feared; as long as there is the guidance of a scientific worldview and methodology, and the guidance of theory that can correctly sum up lessons learned, difficulties can be overcome and victory can be achieved. As Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "Struggle, failure, struggle again, failure again, struggle again, until victory—this is the logic of the people." There was a period, mainly before the reform and opening-up, when we emphasized drawing clear lines between socialist jurisprudence and the jurisprudence of exploiting classes in terms of their class nature. This was correct, but we almost completely rejected all beneficial achievements of human political civilization and legal culture, ignored the commonalities in governance and social management among different classes and countries while emphasizing only their individuality and uniqueness. Of course, commonalities always manifest through individuality, and ignoring commonalities in individuality makes individuality lack richness and completeness. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, especially in recent years, people have once again focused on these commonalities while gradually neglecting the study of individuality. For example, they speak only of the modernization of the rule of law, or rarely mention the modernization of socialist rule of law or the socialist modernization of the rule of law, or speak only of the spirit of law or the modern spirit of law, rarely mentioning the socialist spirit of law. A large number of Western legal theories and viewpoints have been introduced without analysis. Is this another form of one-sidedness? Facts have proven that neglecting the universal achievements of human political civilization in legal culture, completely rejecting Western legal theories, closing our doors, completely cutting off history, and trying to create a completely new system on our own is unrealistic and unworkable; if the universal achievements of human political civilization and legal culture are not combined with China's national conditions, do not serve our socialist ideals and beliefs, and are simply copied or blindly adopted, it will lead to losing political direction, which is even more dangerous. Fortunately, after a tortuous and bumpy path, our Party has recognized that both forms of one-sidedness are wrong. We have found the way to organically combine the socialist ideals and beliefs with the best governance strategies accumulated by humanity. This is to adhere to the leadership of the Party, develop people's democracy, and combine the rule of law, and to adhere to the rule of law and build a socialist country under the rule of law. This is the best choice for national governance strategy. Governance can adopt various methods, and morality and law, as well as ideas and systems, are the two most basic means of regulating people's behavior. Therefore, proposing the combination of rule by virtue and rule of law is an important part of implementing the strategy of building a socialist country under the rule of law. Socialism found the rule of law and thus found the best choice for national governance strategy, and the rule of law found socialism and thus embarked on the noble path of serving the cause of world peace and human liberation. Following this golden path, the legal culture of humanity will surely develop to a new stage—the stage of socialist legal culture. Jurisprudence and legal theory will also develop to a higher stage—the stage of Marxist jurisprudence and legal theory truly armed with a scientific worldview and methodology, truly reflecting the wishes of the broad masses and conforming to the laws of social development and the requirements of the times. For the reader's better understanding of this collection of essays, a few points need to be explained: The collection primarily includes published papers and articles, with textbooks and monographs excluded. There are two exceptions: one is a small booklet titled On Abiding by the Law, published in 1955, and the other is a section excerpted from the eighth chapter of the unified textbook I edited, published in 1982. Works included in the collection before 1966 only include two articles published in 1955. There are still some papers from before 1966 that were not included. Some were never published and the original texts are also lost. Three are worth mentioning: one is On the People's Congress System, another is On the Relationship Between the Material and Formal Sources of Law, both likely written between 1951 and 1954. The third is an article co-authored with Comrades Guo Yuzhao and Zhou Yaru in 1959—a piece that was severely criticized at the time and later during the ten-year turmoil regarding the relationship between the Party's policies and the law. At that time, the argument that "the Party's policies are law, and our best law" was in vogue. We disagreed with this "leftist" view. The title of our article was The Party's Policies Are the Soul of Law, and Law Is One of the Tools for Implementing the Party's Policies. It was a printed draft, which is now lost, but its basic arguments can be seen in articles and textbooks published since the reform and opening-up. The papers and articles are generally arranged in chronological order of publication. This allows us to see the background of writing, the main issues in the field of legal theory at the time, and the author's, arguments, and evidence. Arranging the works in chronological order and extracting a title from one of the papers in that period to serve as the title for this group of works can also largely reflect the background and conditions of the time, which seems to be more conducive to understanding the unity of history and logic, as well as the connection between theory and practice.