家庭法律社會學的臺灣拼圖──分享一個行腳讀書人的攝像本

The Taiwan Jigsaw of the Sociology of Family Law: From the Standing and Views of an Academic in Action

「家庭法律社會學」一詞，至今未為臺灣學術界廣為引用，但若交錯搜尋家庭、社會、法律間的文獻，便不難整理拼圖式的整體圖像。應用「法律與社會」的視野或方法，觀察、評析法律對於家庭中個人權益與身分關係的規範與執行，並探究、批判立法價值或社會實踐的多元樣貌，已經是臺灣身分法科際整合教研日常。我國家庭法的發展，從以「男女平等」與「子女利益」為法制原則，歷經家庭與相關人權法的增修，在在彰顯家庭之於個人價值與社會意涵的演變。本文應用「家庭法律社會學」工具，梳理臺灣家庭法的發展脈絡，再以現有學術及實務素材作為拼圖內涵，作成可供分享、檢視並修正的教研模型，並分享筆者在市民運動及研究教學間，孕育、深耕在地「家庭法律社會學」三十年的所思所得。

“Sociology of Family Law” is not an established research field in Taiwan, though a good number of multi-dimensional studies between and among the family, society, and law are available for systematic taxonomy and analyses. Pluralistic “law and society” perspectives or methods are widely deployed among the Taiwan academia to observe and/or examine how the law has regulated domestic relations as well as individual rights within the family. Inspections and criticisms are thus made to discern not only legislative values but also evolving images of living law. The “Taiwan Family Law” marked its birth when legislative principles of “sexual equality” and “the best interests of the child” were adopted to amend provisions on marriage and parent-child relations governed by the Civil Code: Book IV: Relatives. As the nuclear family became the focus of state regulations over “Relatives”, specific legislations are amplified to attend to socio-legal issues of child/juvenile welfare and rights, domestic violence, marital rape, artificial insemination, family mediation, sexual equality at work, palliative care, and most recently, elderly dignity, rights of disabled persons, patient autonomy, good death, and euthanasia. This development demonstrates the meaning of the family vis-a-vis life value and its dynamic interactions in socio-legal settings. This study employs familiar research tools of the sociology of family law to observe the development and discern the contexts of Taiwan family law by collecting accumulated research findings on theory and practice, by which a platform will be produced to share socio-legal information on global-localized family law. This article thus aims to examine dynamic interactions between the family and law in Taiwanese society through the review of accumulated literature and sharing of personal experiences in the past 30 years of study on the sociology of family law.