啖肉抑或食屍：臺灣日治初期的屍法實踐

Carnivorousness or Necro-Cannibalism: Corpse Cases in Early Japanese Colonial Taiwan

本文透過3起發生在明治44年（1911）、且皆涉及食屍行為的刑事案件（宜蘭食屍案、阿里山食屍案，以及沙鹿食胎案），利用案情與背景的比較，逐一解開彼時交雜著殖民統治與多重法律繼受的法律現代化情境，藉以探索日治初期身處殖民地臺灣的日本人法律專業社群如何認知其專業。 直到審理漢人腦丁採食原住民屍身的宜蘭食屍案，在臺的日本人法律專業社群才意識到日本刑法第190條所稱之「死體」，其在「人與非人」界線的呈現，尚且容有商議的空間。面對行政高層及民間社會各自抱持著對此界線的差異想像，這些來自日本內地的法律從業者，終究還是秉持使其得以自居為文明的歐陸法學來為臺灣劃下「人與非人」的界線。 然而，當日本帝國領有臺灣之時，自居為文明代言人的法律專業社群卻未必已充分瞭解襲自歐陸的近代西方法制。面對殖民地臺灣與日本內地的「同而異法」情境，初期的殖民地法制官僚只能透過實際的試行錯誤來維繫形式上的「以法統治」，司法官則在屍體毀棄案件上，走向與日本內地相異的司法實踐。這般「同而異法」的情境，不僅提供身處殖民地的法曹自行解釋適用日本刑法的機會，也促成殖民地的法律專業社群得以跨過日本內地的代理，直接透過自主繼受的方式而與歐陸法學取得聯繫。

Through the review of three criminal cases of 1911 that involved eating of dead bodies, this article analyzes the then circumstance of Japanese colonial rule with westernization and modernization of its legal system, and explores how the Japanese judicial circle constructed the identity of the legal profession in early colonial Taiwan. The Kavalan case highlighted the legal debate on Article 190 of the Penal Code of Japan. To the Japanese judicial circle in Taiwan, the debate regarding the eating of dead tissue/ flesh centered around the controversy on whether the dead body was defined as person or non-person. Despite of diverse views on such held by the Japanese administrative authority and the Taiwanese folk society, the Japanese judges adhered to the 'more advanced' legal practice in line with the 'more civilized' western jurisprudence, thus rendering the indigenous or Taiwanese traditions and customs as 'backward' or 'savage' . However, the cognition of Japanese judges and lawyers on the western legal system was far from thorough during early colonial rule. Hence, their practice of 'rule by law' was through trial and error. While the same Penal Code was applied in both Japan Mainland and colonial Taiwan, there were different legal interpretations regarding these corpse cases. Not only did the Japanese judicial circle in Taiwan show digression and independence from Japan Mainland, there was direct adoption of legal practice from the European jurisprudence.