政治與司法：實然面的分析途徑

Politics and the Judiciary: A Pragmatic Approach for Analysis

儘管司法在政治體制中經常履行著重要政治功能，然而政治學界對於司法的研究卻無法與其他領域相提並論，尤其發展中國家司法政治的系統性分析更是相當匱乏。至於國內研研究司法政治的相關著作，大多純以「應然面」和「法律」觀點分析之，本文則嘗試以「實然面」與「政治」角度闡釋司法體系的若干概念。首先，筆者認為，司法系統具備法律和政治的雙重特徵：法院不單是一個應用法律、解決紛爭的司法機構，其亦是一個政治機構，是政治過程的一項環節，與政治、社會、經濟等各系統環境維繫著緊密的互動，亦彼此影響。基本上，司法的角色即是從事「社會價值的權威性分配」。其次，既然司法運作的本質無法脫離政治的範疇，因此諸多法學界人士所信奉的「司法獨立」、「司法歸司法，政治歸政治」，應僅可視為是規範性價值而已。本文建議，對於政治學研究而言，以「司法公平」的觀點取代司法獨立的概念，應較能檢證實際的司法現象，並以此作為衡量民主化發展程度的重要指標。結論中，本文認為司法政治應可成為研究國內政治發展的另一領域，此外亦提出未來研究的可能方向與建議。

Although an important part of any given political regime, the judicial system has received relatively little attention from a comparative perspective. The judicial systems in a few western countries have been researched empirically, while systematic analyses of the judicial politics in developing countries remain scarce. As for the research on Taiwan's judicial politics, legal scholars mostly tend to regard the judiciary as a 'legal' institution only. Rather, this study attempts to shed light on this important issue from the 'political' perspective. In assessing the linkage between law and politics, we firmly believe that the judicial systems are bifocal; that is, they are both legal and political institutions. Therefore, understanding the legal and political context within the judicial systems operate is important in studying their role within society. The laws that the courts interpret and apply do not exist in a vacuum, rather the creation, application, and interpretation of law exists within political, social, and economic environments. The judiciall systems are one governmental agency among many, and their activities are influenceds- directly and indirectly-by what other governmental branches and non-governmental actors do or do not do. Moreover, defining politics as the 'process, by which authoritative decisions are made about who gets what in society' indicates that the judiciary, like the executive and legislature, must make choices and that these choices have consequences for society. Viewed in this light, we argue that the concepts'judicial independence' and 'the judiciary should be separate and distinct from politics' are just normative values. Instead, the concept 'judicial fairness' should be a pragmatic and crucial indicator to measure the development of democratization. We look forward to introducing political students to the field of judicial politics and to help generate further research in this area.