王子的法律教育－－解讀福蒂斯丘的《英格蘭法禮贊》

Legal Education for the Prince-- In Praise of the Laws of England by Fortescue

《英格蘭法禮贊》是15世紀英國著名的政治理論家約翰‧福蒂斯丘爵士晚年的一部作品。這部作品與半個世紀後的《君主論》有著極為相似之處，它們在一定程度上都是“君王策”，都是關於君主教育的政治理論作品。而不同之處關鍵就在於教育君主所憑借的手段。在《君主論》中，馬基雅維利是在用一種“新道德”來為君主定下行為的圭臬；而在《英格蘭法禮贊》中，福蒂斯丘卻是在用法律來塑造一位未來的君主。在《英格蘭法禮贊》中，福蒂斯丘模擬了一位“大法官”與王子的對話，圍繞15個問題，對王子進行了一次系統的英格蘭法教育。在整個法律教育過程中，通過對學習法律的理由和方法的論述，“大法官”為王子樹立了 “好君主”的典範；通過對“政治統治和王權統治”的論述，為王子澄清了王權與法治的關係；通過對民法和英格蘭法的對比，則突出了英格蘭法在塑造公民和貴族方面的政治功能。這部作品中，福蒂斯丘的目標是通過對未來君主的法律教育，從而尋求王權與法治的結合點，即一方面使王權能夠保持強大，另一方面能實現王國的法治。他的理論構想在當時並未成為現實，但是在隨後的都鐸王朝卻出現了王權與法治“雙贏”的“悖論性”局面。

Sir John Fortescue was a prestigious political theorist of England in the 15th century, and In Praise of the laws of England was one of his articles at old age. In comparison with another contemporary work, i. e., The Prince, they were all political theory Manuals on educating the prince, but the key difference between them was that, in The Prince Machiavelli told the prince how to rule the kingdom by “new morality”, but in In Praise of the laws of England Fortescue modeled a new king by the law. In the article, Fortescue simulated a dialogue between Lord Chancellor and the Prince. The whole conversation focused on fifteen questions from the Prince, by which Lord Chancellor gave the prince a systematic training on the laws of England. During the process, Lord Chancellor figured out a model of king by telling the prince why and how to learn the law, and clarified the relationship between the royalty and the rule of law by interpreting the “political dominion and royal dominion”, and emphasized the prominent function on cultivating the nobles and common people by comparing the civil law and the laws of England. In this article, Fortescue had been striving to find a rational approach of combining the royalty and the rule of law so that on one hand the royal power could be consolidated, and on the other hand the rule of law could be carried through. Although his concept was not fulfilled in his life time, a subtle paradox between the king and law emerged in the coming Tudor’s reign.