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就法治方面的普遍性和特殊性之间的关系提出一个新的概念：普遍性的概念应与全球实现的要求分开。法治的永恒和独立于背景的普遍性将被对普遍性的另一种理解所取代。在这种理解中，法治的规范性有效性取决于社会条件。将提倡多种普遍主义，而不是单一的绝对普遍主义。将从普遍性和特殊性的两极转向它们的共生。文化的多样性不应被认为是绝对的不可通约性，而是不同文化的差异性，可以相互融合和相互学习。此外，重点应从外向的寻求全球法治最低共识或最低标准转向内省的自我反省和自我改造。在其他方面，这些可能是由与他人的相遇引发的。我们不应寻求一个压倒一切的全球共识或标准，而应更多地致力于使每个社会一方面根据其社会和文化背景制定并进一步发展自己的社会和法律秩序方案，另一方面在这一过程中发展普遍精神并超越自身的内容。该项目的另一个密切相关的目标是制定一个中国法治方案。这一方案应该立足于中国的社会文化背景，并超越这种背景，承载着普遍的精神。它应该致力于解决传统和现代、普遍性和特殊性以及右翼和左翼之间的三重紧张关系。这种三重张力贯穿于中国近代史直到今天。这一方案不仅是对中国的法律转型进程的贡献，也不仅仅是对西方对中国法治问题的理解的贡献。也是从中国关于法治问题的论述中，发现他与西方世界的相互促进、相互补充，以及对西方法治理论和实践的批判性反思。

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.