John C.H.Wu's Research On Chinese And Western Legal Thoughts And His Creative Ideas

John C.H.Wu(1899-1986)was a famous jurist in China in the twentieth century.He was educated by private schools from an early age and was immersed in Chinese traditional culture.After graduating from the law department of Soochow University in 1920,he studied in Europe and the United States.During study abroad,he made acquaintances with famous Western jurists such as Holmes,Stamler,Pound and Gény,and initiated dialogues with the western jurisprudential circle.As a jurist with dual background of Chinese and Western jurisprudence,he had made a penetrating study of both Chinese and Western legal thoughts.His researches on Chinese legal thoughts mainly were embodied in the following aspects: the translation and interpretation of some historical materials of Chinese legal thoughts,the research on the evolution of Chinese legal thoughts and the comparative study on the new and old legal thoughts of ancient Confucianism and Legalists.In addition,he criticized the world outlook of identity between heaven and man of Chinese legal thoughts,legal thought of moralization,and the life outlook of reconciliation.While on western legal thoughts,his researches were embodied in two aspects: the study on the legal thoughts of famous Western thinkers,such as Holmes,Stamler,Pound,Austin,Cardozo,Wilson and Aquinas,and on the traditions of western legal thoughts such as natural law and common law.What's more,he also criticized the monism,mechanism and individualism of modern western legal thoughts.On the basis of criticizing and extracting the essence of Chinese and Western legal thoughts,he put forward the following five innovations of legal thoughts: the first is the legal epistemology that transcends the "individual outlook" and "general outlook" of law;the second is the new analytical jurisprudence that comprehensively analyses "legal concept" and "judicial process";the third is the new natural law theory that integrates "constancy" and "impermanence";the fourth is the law that pursues "truth,goodness and beauty" and the fifth is the legal philosophy of Catholic that embraces "personalism".From the above legal thoughts,it can be concluded that John C.H.Wu was good at integrating the opposite and complementary legal thoughts,and emphasizing the study of the origin and purpose of law,the study of "legal aesthetics" and the study of law and religion.John C.H.Wu spent all his life looking for a solid foundation for law.Finally,he linked law and religion together by natural law then found the eternal foundation of law in Christian Catholicism.In short,his legal thoughts had also undergone the transformation of "New Analytical Methodology" into "legal philosophy of Catholic".Thus he believed that the purpose of law is justice,and love is higher than justice and love is the achievement of law.