Substantive Legal Reasoning Under The Rule Of Law

Legal reasoning is the key to application of the law.It is an important guarantee to complete the rule of law.The legal reasoning is divided into formal legal reasoning and substantive legal reasoning.Substantive legal reasoning is a process,in which judges in the judicial practice,facing the challenging cases where there is no applicable law,the applicable law is not clear,two different laws should be applied into one case,or the application of the law conflicts the value of the law,etc.,in the pursuit of the goal of substantial justice,considering the spirit,value,principle,legal,policy and habit of law as the substantive basis,apply relevant legal methods of judgment to render the court decision.Substantive legal reasoning is an advantage to fully make the substantive justice done.Plus the flexibility of method,it is playing a vital role in solving difficult cases.But it is also obvious to see the limitations of substantive legal reasoning,because of the lack of unified standard for the substantial basis.It is likely to abuse legal reasoning due to no regulated form.In a sense,not only be solved the difficult cases,but it may lead to distorting the value of law.Therefore,to judge the use of substantive legal reasoning is necessary to remedy the legal constraints,in uncertainty,realize the justice of a case while maintaining the authority of the law.The author believes that the essence of legal reasoning as a kind of legal method,in order to achieve the objective,we should establish the formal rule of law position,and the form of the rule of law on substantive legal reasoning constraints,can be expanded from the internal and external two aspects.Therefore,to restrain the judge using substantive legal reasoning,so that it can remedy the uncertainty of the law,and accomplish the justice for each individual case while maintaining the authority of the law.The author believes that the substantive legal reasoning as a kind of legal method,in order to achieve the objective of the law,should establish the formalized standpoint of the rule of law.And the constraintsfrom the formalized law to the substantive legal reasoning can be developed into two aspects,internally and externally.Based on the analysis of the documentation from the typical cases' decision,this paper carries out in-depth interviews in the unique cases,about how to analyze substantively by judge and the problems rooted in their application of substantive legal reasoning,and summarize the problems and reasons by using the substantive legal reasoning and the necessary to be constrained by the formalized rule of law,in theory and in practice,from there,to attain the specific constraint methods.The paper is divided into five parts:The first part is the basic definition of substantive legal reasoning and its related concept.It introduces the main methods and characteristics,and the scope of its application.It also demonstrates the necessity of constraining substantive legal reasoning and then go a step further to elaborate that substantive legal reasoning should stand into a form of the rule of law.The start of the second part examines that how judges apply substantive legal reasoning in the specific cases,to summarize the main problems existing in the process of application of substantive legal reasoning,namely substantive legal reasoning,namely lack of application,improper standard,misuse of conditions,and confusing logic.The third part is the empirical analysis on the cause of existing problems about substantive legal reasoning application.According to the analysis of interview and questionnaire survey results and statistics from the research group,the three main reasons are the mind block,technical barriers,and improper interference of public opinion.The fourth part mainly analyzes the internal constraints of the rule of law on substantive legal reasoning,that is the internal restraint of formalized rule of law on substantive legal reasoning including that judges should consider carefully the applicable conditions of substantive legal reasoning,strictly select the applicable standards of substantive legal reasoning,overcome the psychological barriers for substantive legal reasoningapplication and grasp the application technics of substantive legal reasoning fully.The fifth part mainly discusses the external constraints of the formalized of the rule of law on substantive legal reasoning,including case guidance system,and the referee public explanation and thought training in legal occupation community and so three aspects.All in all,this paper starts from the basic definition of substantive legal reasoning,using approach of the documentation analysis,case analysis and practical research,taking the problem produced in the application of substantive legal reasoning as the breakthrough point of the research,so as to establish the substantive legal reasoning in the form of the rule of law,and then come to conclude the internal and external approaches for the constraints of the two,aiming to contribute to the completion of judicial justice and the "visible justice".