On The Unity Of Legal Effect And Social Effect Of Justice

At the end of twentieth century, Li Guoguang, the former vice president of China's Supreme People's Court, has put forward a proposition that justice should achieve the unity of legal effect and social effect. This proposition aroused a wide range of concerns of the legal theory and practice community. Theorists carriy out extensive and in-depth discussion, and the practical side look it as the guiding principle in handling cases. This paper will define the legal effect and social effect of justice, find out the basis of jurisprudence why justice should pursue social effect, analyze the factors that affect the violation of the two effects of justice, find the road to achieve unity between the two, to expect to provide a meaningful reference for achieving the unity of two effects of justice.Firstly, I will define the legal effect and social effect of justice. The legal effect of the administration of justice is that through the court process to resolve social disputes, including trial and mediation, etc, to achieve proper evaluation of the law, education, and enforcement functions. The social effect of justice is the result of the administration of justice should not only comply with the law but also the recognition by the masses. The social effects of justice has subjective and objective aspects. The objective aspect is that the trial according to law to resolve social disputes, in the subjective,the trial activities are consistent with the general public conception of justice. The relationship of the two not only has the opposite side, their focus and evaluation criteria are different, but also a unified side. the legal effect is the basis of the legal effect, the social effect is the value that the legal effect pursuit.Secondly, the proposition has deep theoretical roots. In the administration of justice, focusing on the legal effect or social effect, It means how to choose the legal ways, formal reasoning or substantive reasoning. legal scholar of social law school, Roscoe·Pound divided law's development into five stages, that is the original law, strict law, equity and natural law, the law society, the global law. He thought in the social law stage, we should focus more on the social effect of administration of justice. China's law is in the process of socialization, so we have to pursue justice social effects. Benjamin·Nathan·Cardozo thought that the judge in the course of the applicable law should interpret the law by philosophy, historical, traditional and sociological approaches flexibly. He asked the judge should pay attention to the role of logical reasoning, but when the conlusion getting from logical reasoning is differenf firom the standard of social welfare, public justice and social ethics, the judge should abandon logical reasoning and use other methods to find the answer. In other words, justice should not only consider the legal effect, but also focus on the social value.Again, This paper will analyze the main factors that affect the social effect of justice. This paper argues that the factors which affect the unity of two effects of justice are as fellow:(a) socio-economic development factor, there are more social disputes which brought a lot of new cases to the court with economic development; (b) legal cultural fater, the modern legal system is built up basing on the transplantation of Western legal system, which has a certain conflict with the traditional legal culture of our country; (c) the law itself factor, because it's stability and hysteresis; (d) the legal system factor, it mainly points to the judiciary being interfered by other organs and personnel; (e) the talemt of judges facter, because now the judges in our country are not professional; (f) social customs facter, it is the conflict between the diversity of social customs and the unity of laws; (g) media's opinion influence, because now the media often mislead public becouse of biased media coverage mislead the public. These factors have impacted the unity of the two effects of justice from different angles. We should seek ways to achieve unity of two effects proceed from these factors.Finally, the paper argues that there are four ways to achieve the unity of two effects of justice:(a) we should pay attention to the role of civil law, especiallly in discovering the legal significance behind facts and making value measurement; (b) judges should be familiar with methods of legal interpretation, judge should distinguish different situations and use different interpretation methods in the process of justice; (c) to achieve a higher level of judicial independence, that judge must avoid interference from other organs, especially, in the judicial process, the judges make the judgments just follow laws and their own conscience, it is an important condition for. protecting the unity of the two effects of justice; (d)the construction of the criminal settlement system in the trial phase, it will work out problems of issues that hard to implement civil part of criminal civil case, to protect the interests of both parties adequately, and to promote social harmony.