Conflict And Balance Of Legal Value Objectives

In the People’s Republic of China, the study on values of law commences from early80s in the20th century. There are a lot of relevant treatises and articles now. However, there is still constant controversy in the jurisprudence field over the basic issues of the values of law, including the concept, category and system of the values of law. Furthermore, the existing Chinese literature usually bases the study of conflicts of values of law and resolution thereof on abstract concepts or basic principles without reference to any specific legal provision. This essay mainly focuses on the analysis and study on the different balances of values of law in the conflict rules on foreign-related product liability in the EU, the USA and the PRC for the purpose of drawing some universal observations and conclusions, which may be helpful in further establishing the theory of balance of values of law.In Chapter One, the author first summarizes and analyzes the existing Chinese literature on the concept of value and the concept of values of law and defines value of law as the effect of law on the existence, development and perfection of the individual, group or even the society. Then the author further points out that those discussed by Chinese scholars in jurisprudence field under the name of values of law are usually the values promoted or aimed at by the law, basically including order, safety, freedom, equality, justice and efficiency. These values are then defined and discussed briefly. The author holds the opinion that justice is an upper concept of safety, freedom and equality, which refers to the highest value pursued by people with regard to the interpersonal relations.In Chapter Two, the author first summarizes and analyzes the existing Chinese literature on the conflict of values of law and the resolution on such conflict. After analyzing several pairs of conflicts of values of law frequent in practice, the author holds the opinion that various values are simultaneously pursued in a law or even a specific legal provision and that there is no practical meaning to discuss the resolution on the conflict of values of law solely in theoretical and conceptual aspect because there is no common principles applicable to all kinds of conflicts of values of law. The conflict of values of law should be resolved on basis of the specific circumstances thereof and the relevant influencing factors. The conflict rules on foreign-related product liability is thus chosen by the author as the object of study to show how different balances between values of law are established. After a brief introduction on concept of conflict rules on foreign-related product liability, the values pursued by this specific legal provision are analyzed.In Chapter Three, the different balances of values of conflict rules on foreign-related product liability in the EU, the USA and the PRC are specifically introduced and analyzed by historically and concretely examining the development of these conflict rules and analyzing these conflict rules in detail. In Chapter Four, the author further explains and analyzes several relevant influencing factors, including the economic development, legal tradition, legal thoughts, legislation process and relevant legal system etc. It is further pointed out that, due to the basic fact of value diversification, it is essentially improper to have the research of scholars to lead the formulation of law, which is the realistic carrier of values. The author tends to believe that the introduction of the discourse theory of Habermas in the legislation process may be a better approach to solve such conflict and reach a balance thereof.