美國憲法上的戰爭發動權及啟示

The Power to Initiate War in the U.S. Constitution and Its Implications

總統可以單方發動戰爭嗎？立法機關是否應該在戰爭發動中發揮作用？中文學界既有研究以美國經驗指出，戰爭發動權為總統專屬權力。然而，這個說法不符合美國憲法原意、早期實踐以及司法先例。美國制憲者首創宣戰權與統帥權分立的模式，拒絕了英國模式下行政機關單獨掌握戰爭權的模式。在制憲紀錄中，美國制憲代表明確主張，將宣戰權授予國會，是為了讓國會掌握戰爭發動權。行憲之初的四位美國總統在發動戰爭前都尋求了國會的授權。此外，美國聯邦最高法院在早年的判例，也支持國會決定戰爭發動之觀點。另外，雖然有學者以韓戰後美國總統單方發動戰爭的歷史實踐作為依據，主張總統有戰爭發動權；但是這些例證不符合歷史實踐方法論的預設條件與判斷標準，因此無規範效力。美國經驗對台灣的啟示是，憲法上的宣戰更適合解釋為發動戰爭，因為台灣亦採取了宣戰權與統帥權分立的模式。在此情況下，立法院應批准發動戰爭的提案，可以減少戰爭之發動，從而有助於促進憲法第137條第1項「維護世界和平」之目的。

Can the president unilaterally initiate a war? Shall the legislature play a role in war initiation? Existing research in the Chinese-language academia, based on American experience, points out that the power to initiate war is an exclusive power of the president. However, this thesis is inconsistent with the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, early practice, and judicial precedents. The framers of the U.S. Constitution pioneered the separation of the power to declare war and the commander in chief power, rejecting the British model in which the executive branch exclusively control war powers. In the records of the Constitutional Convention, the delegates clearly advocated that vesting the power to declare war to Congress was to give Congress the power to initiate war. The first four American Presidents in the early days after the Constitution coming into force sought authorization from Congress before initiating wars. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court also in its early precedents supported that Congress shall decide war initiation. Besides, some scholars use the historical practices of the American presidents unilaterally initiating wars after the Korean War as a basis to argue that the president has war initiation power; however, these practices do not meet the presumption and tests of historical practice methodology, and therefore have no normative effect. The implication of the American experience to Taiwan is that declaring war in the Constitution is better to be interpreted as initiating war, because Taiwan has also adopted a model of separation of the power to declare war and the commander in chief power. In this case, the Legislative Yuan shall approve the proposal to initiate war, which can reduce the initiation of war and thus help promote the purpose of“preservation of world peace”in Article 137, Section 1 of the Constitution.