清代刑事審判文化：以臺灣命盜案件審判為個案之分析

The Criminal Judicial Culture during the Qing Period: a Case Study Based on Taiwan’s Criminal Judicial Archives

本文採用「地方社會法律史」研究取徑，分析清代臺灣的刑科題本與淡新檔案等中央與地方層級的司法文書，以討論清代刑事審判文化與社會變遷以及地方治理之間的關係。本文從刑科題本等中央層級文書發現，清代臺灣有不少的命盜案件，的確係依照律例規定逐級覆審與裁斷；同時，臺灣命盜案件的審判文化並不是一成不變的，而是隨著臺灣社會情勢與清廷統治模式的轉變，經歷了四個時期的不同變化。值得注意的是，清代臺灣的刑事審判文化，首要關切的不是道德與人倫秩序等文化理想的重建，而是強力運用國家暴力壓制犯罪者，以免危及國家政權的統治穩定。另一方面，本文從淡新檔案等地方層級文書發現，清代臺灣的地方行政與財政體制，並未隨著人口增長與經濟變遷而成比例的擴展，既有的覆審制度因此愈益無法有效運作。面對層出不窮的命盜案件，地方官府不僅難以依照時限緝捕案犯與審結案件，亦無足夠人力與經費解審人犯；地方官府為免遭到懲處或加重自身的財政負擔，乃極力掩蓋轄區內的命盜案件，僅將極少數上司可能訪聞得知的重大案件，依循覆審程序審理並往上呈送上級官府。

This paper discusses the criminal judicial culture’s relationship with social transformation and local governance in Taiwan under Qing rule. It utilizes the analytic framework of “legal history in local society” to evaluate central and local level of criminal judicial archives. By analyzing central level of judicial archives, this paper finds that some felonious cases were actually reviewed and ruled according to Qing Legal Code. Besides, the criminal judicial procedure in Taiwan gradually underwent four periods of change following local social unrest and the state’s response in governance. It is notable that the Qing government’s criminal judicial culture did not value restoring morality and human relations as much as maintaining the regime’s stability through the suppression of criminality. On the other hand, by analyzing local level of judicial archives, this paper discovers that the given judicial review procedures could not function properly due to both the local administration and financial institutions’ inability to proportionally grow with an increase in local population and economic development. Facing an unbearable load of criminal cases, local courts in Taiwan could neither arrest most perpetrators nor adjudicate cases within prescribed time limits. Therefore, a local official usually concealed the majority of serious cases that fell under his jurisdiction. Only when it was infeasible to conceal the case did the official present the case to his superior for review.