Trust In The Law And Legal Authority

New China's"ruling by law"has gone through sixty years of history and thirteen years have passed since it was established as the basic strategy of governing the country. While significant achievements have been made, a number of problems have arisen. The establishment and enhancement of the legal authority has become a major issue of common concern which will affect the process of China's ruling by law and the achievement of the target.The trust in the law, as the fundamental built-in guarantee of the realization of the legal authority, is an essential psychological basis of the ruling by law, which aims to choose and obey on the basis of comprehensive balancing of various interests and values. Although both the trust in the law and the law belief are objective psychological attitudes, they are essentially different. The fact that the law can be believed is based on the social main body's rational understanding and emotional experience of the social fairness and justice ideal and the order needs. The law belief consists of a series of concepts, nevertheless the text of the law is only the materialized form of the law spirit. What citizens believe in the fact is something behind the legal texts——the concept of reconciliation of freedom and order, rights and obligations and the lawful spirit of the restriction of the power. There is no lack of belief in the law in China.The trust in the law would make the public in all social behaviors are generally motivated by the internalization of legal requirements. In this motivation, they are willing to measure their own behaviors by law and to accept voluntarily the law judge and detection. Given the influence of the China's traditional culture and of the power operation mode along several thousand years, there's a serious lack of public trust in the law. Without the trust in the law, the law is only a form, and ruling the country by law has no hope. If the society or a country do not have general and full trust in the law, it is impossible to really rule the country by law. The maintenance of the legal authority and the construction of the socialist law-ruled society need to strengthen the psychological trust of the people in the law and prompt them to act consciously in accordance with the law.