作者：高仰光
作者介绍：中国人民大学法学院副教授，法学博士
出版日期：2021年10月9日
内容提要 回溯近百年的学术讨论，人们对于法典化及其历史进程的理解呈现出三个 不同的面向。第一个面向在最狭窄的意义上界定法典化运动，将其视为近代以来欧陆国家 以罗马法传统为基础，以私法为内核，推动一套独特的法学方法论向纵深方向发展的过程。 第二个面向上的法典化运动与“法”的现代性话语紧密相联，认为法典化本质上是民族国 家通过承认“法”的主体性地位携手实现理性化转型的一种重要方式。第三个面向的观察 试图将“非西方的”以及“前现代的”规范性文本的编纂活动纳入考量范围，认为法典化 实际上是在人类文明传承中一直发挥着重要作用的“书写传统”的集中表现。这三个历史 叙事相互交叠，构成了一幅复杂的图景。法律史学在这一过程中发挥了重要的知识整合的 功能。鉴于中国当下已进入法典编纂的实践阶段，厘清法典化的各个历史叙事的层次，有利 于当代中国法治事业的健康发展。
关键词 法典化 历史叙事 比较法 现代性 书写传统
Abstract: This article analyzes three major narratives of codification by reviewing the academic discussions over the past 100 years. The first was in the narrowest sense, which regarded codification as a historical process of promoting a unique methodology of private law in depth on the basis of the Roman law tradition. This happened in major European continental countries. The second was closely related to the modernity discourse of law, which suggested that codification was a by-product of the rational transformation of the nation-state in the modern context. In order to take the non-western and pre-modern codes into account, the third regarded codification as a consequence of long literal tradition during the inheritance of the human civilization, contrary to oral tradition. These three historical narratives overlap each other and form a complex picture, and the integration of them, to some extent, occurred in the field of legal history. Since China has now entered the practical stage of codification, clarifying the historical narratives of codification is conducive to the healthy development of the rule of law in contemporary China.