Freedom: The Core Value of Rule of Law

Author: Yang Changyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: Rule of law, as a way of life, originates from the free nature of humanity. In reality, the rule of law revolves around human freedom and rights, ultimately embodying a concern for the free, harmonious, and comprehensive development of individuals. In the contemporary world, the status and significance of the rule of law have undergone significant changes, but freedom, as its core value, remains an enduring spiritual theme. This discourse on the rule of law, deeply rooted in Western culture, has gradually gained legitimacy in the context of modern China. The history of Western rule of law demonstrates that rational contractual culture centered on individual freedom plays a supporting role in the establishment and development of the rule of law, which holds special significance for China's rule of law development. The development of Western rule of law has proceeded through trial and error, and the crisis of legalism, as a microcosm of the broader cultural crisis in the West, vividly illustrates the consequences of the split between value rationality and instrumental rationality in modernity. Rule of law that deviates from the value of freedom is inevitably reduced to a tool, becoming a "legitimate" means of suppressing and harming people. Addressing how the rule of law can deeply influence the lives of Chinese people, how it can transcend the mere level of external coercion, and how it can be accepted in concept, recognized in behavior, and rooted in daily life—all these issues require a deeper analysis of the cultural foundations of the rule of law. Chinese cultural tradition, centered on an experiential ethical culture with a collectivist orientation, lacks individual autonomy and underdeveloped personal freedom, with a severe absence of rule-of-law elements. The overwhelming influence of the everyday world in traditional Chinese culture has become an internal obstacle to the formation of modern rule of law, while the cultural traditions of a ritual-society hinder the deepening of rule-of-law development in China. Therefore, while emphasizing the coexistence of evolution and construction in China's rule of law development, it is even more crucial to conduct a profound critique of the culturally stable structure of the rule of law in traditional China, which lacks individual autonomy and freedom. Within the broad perspective of cultural philosophy, this book reveals freedom as the core of the rule of law, explores the fundamental issues and differences between Chinese and Western rule of law, and deeply focuses on the free values of the rule of law in China.