Rule of Law in the Tension between Universality and Particularity - China in Focus

跨学科和跨文化研究项目旨在提出一个关于法治的普遍性和特殊性之间关系的新概念：普遍性的概念应与全球实现的要求脱钩。对法治的一种不受时间限制和与背景无关的普遍性，将被对普遍性的另一种理解所取代。根据这一理解，法治的规范有效性取决于社会条件。与单一的绝对普遍主义不同，多元的普遍主义将被提倡。将从普遍性和特殊性的两极转向它们的共生。文化的多样性并不意味着它们是绝对不可分割的，而是不同文化之间可以相互融合和学习的差异性。此外，应将重点从外向型地寻求全球最低限度的法治共识或最低标准转向内向型的自我反思和自我改造。除其他外，这些可能是由与另一个人的相遇引发的。我们不应寻求一种支配性的全球共识或标准，而应更加致力于使每个社会一方面能够根据其社会和文化背景制定并进一步发展其自己的社会和法律的秩序计划，另一方面，在这一过程中发展了一种普遍性的精神，并超越了其本身的背景。该项目的另一个密切相关的目标是制定一个中国统治的计划，依法这一方案既要立足于中国的社会文化语境，又要超越中国的社会文化语境，具有普遍性的精神。它的目的应该是协调传统与现代、普遍性与特殊性、右翼与左翼之间的三重张力。这三重张力贯穿中国近代史至今。这一方案不仅是对中国法律的转型进程的贡献，也不仅仅是对西方理解中国法治问题的贡献。也是发现中国与西方世界的相互促进和丰富，并结合中国法治问题的讨论对西方法治理论和实践进行批判性反思的问题。

The interdisciplinary and intercultural research project aims to propose a new concept of the relationship between universality and particularity regarding the rule of law: The notion of universality should be uncoupled from the claim to the global realization. A timeless and context-independent universalism of the rule of law is to be replaced by another understanding of the universality. In this understanding, the normative validity of the rule of law is dependent upon social conditions. Instead of a single absolute universalism, a plurality of universalisms will be advocated. A shift from the polarity of universality and particularity to their symbiosis will be undertaken. The diversity of cultures is not to be conceived as their absolute incommensurability, but as the otherness of different cultures that could converge and learn from each other. In addition, the focus should be shifted from the extroverted search for a global minimal consensus or minimum standard on the rule of law to the introspective self-reflection and self-transformation. These could, among others, be initiated by the encounter with the other. Instead of looking for one overarching global consensus or standard, we should be more devoted to making it possible that each society, on the one hand, sets forth and further develops its own scheme of social and legal order on the basis of its social and cultural context and, on the other hand, develops a spirit of universality in this process and transcends its own context.A further but closely related aim of the project is the formulation of a scheme of Chinese rule of law. This scheme should be based on the Chinese social and cultural context, as well as transcend this context and carry a spirit of universality. It should aim at negotiating the threefold tension between tradition and modernity, between universality and particularity as well as between the Right and the Left. This threefold tension runs through the modern Chinese history till today. This scheme is neither only about a contribution to the legal transformation process in China, nor only about a contribution to the Western understanding of Chinese rule of law issues. It is also a matter of discovering mutual stimulation and enrichment between China and the Western world and of critical reflection on the Western theory and practice of the rule of law in the light of the discussion about rule of law issues in China.