On The Authority Of Law

China is now in a process of profound and comprehensive transition. In terms of the way of the operation of society, the core of this transition is the fundamental change of means of social governance, that is, from the rule of man to the rule of law. The fundamental change in social governance and in people's way of living will undoubtedly cause correspondent social change and Chinese people in this transition faces more new problems and conditions than people in any other ages. Obviously, with its emphasis on justice, equality and impersonality, law becomes the most important means for the maintenance of social order and at in the same spirit, the pining down of the authority of law becomes a common consensus and requirement in China. However, social life bears heavily on its era and every type of social institution has its own logic and characteristics. Political power, morality and even interpersonal relationship all participate in the maintenance and construction of China's social order. Law always finds itself in the contradiction of individuals and society and in conflict of interests, and law has its own inherent limitations. All this makes the identification of the authority of law an important theoretical and practical problem. It can be safely said that the exploration of the basis and possibility of the realization of the authority of law and the further investigation of the concrete approach to the establishment of the authority of law are the fundamental requirement for China's construction of the rule of law and the comprehensive realization of the all-round social advancement. In a certain sense, the authority of law is the basis for the healthy running of modern social, economic and political institutions and even cultural modes. Without the authority of law, social order could not be maintained and even society itself would be doomed to disintegration and failure in disorder and chaos.With the above-mentioned knowledge as a basis, this paper consists of the following parts:Part one is introduction. This part first begins with a comparative analysis of the Liu Yong Case and the Simpson Case and urges that the establishment of the authority of law in China is a must. It is proposed that the establishment of the authority of law is closely related to the analysis of the essence of the authority of law, its internal structure, its social basis, etc; this kind of analysis can help find the general and particular features in the authority of law and can then help explore the basic model and concrete approach for the establishment of the authority of law in transitional China. Then the present condition of researches on the authority of law is systematically summed up and this summing up process reveals that the present research lacks psychological analysis on a microcosmic level and does not perform analysis of the relationship between the authority of law and social transition on a macrocosmic level. Therefore, this type of research cannot possess insightful knowledge of the need to establish the authority of law. Still then, the thesis statement of this paper is presented: as a tool for the maintenance of social order, the authority of law lies in its validity in the regulation of people's behavior on a surface level and in the supremacy of law in social governance system and people's obedience and recognition towards it on a deep level. The authority of law is a category of generality as well as particularity. In terms of generality, it refers to the establishment of the core position of law in the system of social governance outside of political power and morality and the establishment of the authority of law regardless of its internal ambiguity and defects. these are necessary problems that all countries must face. In this sense, the authority of law is a concept of universality. In terms of particularity, the establishment of the authority of law is heavily influenced by specific social, economic, political and cultural structures of a society and the mode of social structure. Furthermore, these structures cannot be changed with the certain institutional transplant. In this sense, the authority of law is a concept of particularity. These two basic features of the authority of law make it necessary to cover some general common knowledge and meet the demands of particular living background of certain nations at the same time.Part two is chapter one. Efforts have been made in this chapter to explore the concept, nature, characteristics and content of the authority of law. It is defined in this chapter that the authority of law mainly refers to the authority of state law. Special attention has been directed to the sources of the authority of state law in a transitional society, how is it possible and how to construct it. Authority refers to the dominance of power over subjects of social relations, and the legitimacy of such dominance comes from the recognition and obedience of people. Accordingly, the authority of law means the validity of the regulation of human behavior by law and people's recognition and respect toward it. Efforts have also been made to analyze systematically the nature, characteristics and content of the authority of law with historical materialism as a fundamental theoretical stand. In terms of the nature of the authority of law, it comes from the nature of particular productive force and productive relations and it is essentially the representation of people's obedience toward state will. In order to avoid unilateral conclusion, the negative perspective is employed and questions like"what the authority of law is not"are asked. In terms of the characteristics of the authority of law, it is emphasized in this paper that it is a combination of coercive and voluntary obedience. In terms of the content of the authority of law, it is held that it includes legislative, executive and judicial authority from the perspective of forms of realization; and it includes legal realization and the supremacy of law in the perspective of forms of representation. By way of comparative analysis of some relevant concepts, the nature, characteristics, content and range of the authority of law are further clarified.Part three is chapter two. This chapter has as its foundation a central hypothesis, that is, in a certain sense, China's legal science and western legal science are centered on the question of why law has authority and therefore the development and evolution of legal science has as its focus the source of the authority of law. From the investigation of the authority of law in the history of western legal thought, efforts have been made to make the point that external factors like morality and power and internal factors like the limitations of law per se cannot be totally excluded in the establishment of the authority of law. The survey of China's traditional source of the authority of law directs our attention to ethics and despotic power as important sources. The establishment of the authority of law needs to take into consideration the external as well as the internal factors. The investigation of Marxist thoughts on the authority of law reveals further the source of the authority of law and the theoretical and practical significance of it.Part four is chapter three. On a microcosmic level, the internal composition, stages of development of the authority of law and the psychological process of legal subjects are explored and with this as a basis, the general value of the establishment of the authority of law is further discussed. From the perspective of two pairs of concepts, namely obedience/disobedience and actual/formal obedience (disobedience), the history of the evolution of the authority of law can be divided into four periods: the first period is the actual obedience towards all superhuman powers in the primitive society; the second period is the mainly formal obedience in the slave society, the feudal society and the capitalist society; the third period is the coexistence of obedience and disobedience in developed capitalist society and the preliminary stage of socialist society; the fourth period is the actual obedience of law as general social norms in the advanced stage of socialism and after. In terms of the nature of the authority of law, the evolution of the authority of law is generally from external to internal stage. This investigation reminds us the positive functions and limitations of internal obedience and external coercion and in the final analysis the internal authority and communicative authority should be the main forms of authority. From the perspective of the psychological process and mechanism of legal subjects, the input, processing, output and feedback are all explored with legal information as a basic conceptual tool. The significance of the establishment of the authority of law are discussed in a general sense. It is the direst requirement of the realization of law, the guarantee of the balance of interests and the maintenance of social order. This effort reveals the value and necessity of the establishment of the authority of law.Part five is chapter four. The actual requirement of the establishment of the authority of law in the present stage of China's transition is explore on a macrocosmic level and the modes for the establishment of the authority of law are advised. From the perspective of the transition of interpersonal relations, interest structure, the relation between citizens and state and governmental institution, the necessity, possibility and reality of the establishment of the authority of law is discussed.Part six is chapter five. Concrete ways of the establishment of the authority of law are presented in this chapter with the above discussion as a basis. The basis of the establishment of the authority of law lies in the conception of the harmonious rule of law. The establishment of the conception of the harmonious rule of law comes from the requirement of the transition of social structure and the conflict of interests and this harmony can only be realized in the legislative, executive and judicial processes. Democracy is the political condition for the establishment of the authority of law. The reason is that modern democracy insists on the resolution of interest conflicts through dialogue and communication. Wide participation of citizens in public life will increase their respect toward general rules of behavior. The cultivation of the culture of the trust of law is an important guarantee for the establishment of the authority of law and good laws meeting the need of socialist market economy is the fundamental premise for it.Part seven is the conclusion. The research conclusions are summed up in this part and the shortcomings and directions of further research are all pointed out.All in all, this paper is a comprehensive study on the authority of law, and its basic goals consists of two aspects: the first is to perform a comprehensive theoretical exploration of the authority of law, and tha second is to solve the problems of necessity, possibility and concrete approach for the establishment of the authority of law in China's transitional period. It is held that only if we understand the internal structure, source and condition and law of production and development of the authority of law can we find the actual condition and theoretical support for the establishment of the authority of law and provide a solid foundation for the actual realization of socialist rule of law. All these are believe to contribute to the all-round advancement and development of our society.