Comments On Habermas' Proceduralist Paradigm Of Law

The proceduralist paradigm of law is a new one presented by Habermas for overcoming the defects of the two main-stream paradigms of classical "bourgeois formal law" and modern "social substantive law of welfare states" and resolving the legal crisis of the modern society. In this paper, Habermas basic ideas on reviewing, analyzing and criticizing the two main-stream paradigms of law of the modern capitalism are described, the basic standpoints of Habermas' proceduralist paradigm of law are dealt with and its theoretical contributions, disadvantages and significance for enlightening and reference of the legal construction of China are analyzed.Chapter 1 explains the two main-stream paradigm of laws of the western capitalism. The chapter is divided into two parts, of which the first is the explanation to the paradigm of classical "bourgeois formal law", dealing with that the generation of classical "bourgeois formal law" is based on the rational capitalist market-oriented economy and consistent with the internal requirements of the bourgeois market-oriented economy .The basic opinions on the paradigm of classical "bourgeois formal law" are concluded and the limitations that cannot be overcome by the paradigm of classical "bourgeois formal law" are dealt with and it is pointed out that the biggest problem existing in the paradigm of classical "bourgeois formal law" lies in "formalism" and is not equal to "substantive doctrine", thus bringing about a great number of actually unjust phenomena.Part 2 explains the paradigm of modem "social substantive law of welfare states", in which the historical background for generation of the paradigm of modern "social substantive law of welfare states", the consequences of "substantive" law and the basic features of the paradigm of modern "social substantive law of welfare states" are analyzed and various defects and disadvantages of the paradigm of modern "social substantive law of welfare states"are analyzed.