法律现实主义与转型社会刑事司法

我国社会正处于转型期，各种社会矛盾凸显，刑事司法面临着新的挑战。西方的法律现实主义能为我国转型期刑事司法提供可资借鉴的方法论和改革思路。法律现实主义运动在批评形式主义与三段论式审判的基础上，把法律看作具有多重目标的社会引擎，关注司法行为、纠纷解决与社会问题。在中国语境下，引入法律现实主义，不是要简单地否定形式主义，而是应理性对待形式主义并在其中融入客观主义；应在刑事司法裁判中适用利益权衡，重视经验归纳而不拘泥于简单的演绎推理；应以实现社会正义为核心，构建合理衔接的多元纠纷解决机制。

Legal Realism and Criminal Justicein Transitional Society

Legal realism is a family of theories about the nature of law developed in the first half of the 20th century in the United States and Scandinavia. The essential tenet of legal realism is that all law is made by human beings and is therefore subject to human foibles, frailties and imperfections. It has become quite common today to identify Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes as the main precursor of American Legal Realism. For Chinese criminal justice system, it is a new, helpful and realistic topic.China is a pluralistic society in its transitional period now, and the social conflicts are very serious, which is a big challenge for Chinese criminal justice system. Western legal realists criticize formalism and syllogistic type of trial, look law as a society engine with multiple targets, and pay attention to justice behaviors, disputes resolution and social issues as well. In Chinese circumstance, legal realism does not mean to deny formalism, but mean that we should rationally treat formalism and blend objectivism in it. Moreover, interest balance should be applied in criminal judgments and attentions should be paid to experience summarizing beyond simple deductive reasoning. Legal realism also means that we should focus on turning social justice into reality and constructing a pluralistic disputes resolution mechanism with the litigation system and the alternative one well-connected. Anyway, legal realism is not a panacea for Chinese criminal judicial reform, but can provide a methodological guidance for it, especially for solving extreme social conflicts and disputes. In a word, it will be a very helpful theory for Chinese criminal justice system in transitional period.