英文摘要 |
The previous studies of legal history mostly focused on the legal codes, but the contents of the legal life have not received enough attention. Taiwanese legal concepts diverged from those of Chinese legal traditional law and moved toward the modern Western law during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945). Based on the studies of the reception of Western law, this article tries to draw the outline of a Taiwanese legal life according to the 28-year diary written by Chang Li-jun who was a traditional gentry under Japanese government. From the diary of Chang Li-jun, we noticed that the Western law effectively penetrated through the common people's life. What Chang Li-jun faced was the obvious difference between Western legal concept of 'right' and Chinese legal tradition. Even though he did not understand the profound meaning of the positive law, he could skillfully make good use of them. Besides questing for local gentry or using the administrative civil mediation to dealing with his disputes, Chang Li-jun also used Western-style courts as the last and effective measure to resolve his civil disputes. Moreover, lawyers became the bridge between Western law and Chang Li-jun himself. When Taiwanese lawyers entered private practices in the 1920s, the relation between Chang Li-jun and lawyers went beyond the agency of litigations and he cooperated with lawyers to resist the colonial authority. Chang Li-jun did not embrace the criminal law as much as civil justice and he did not forget the essential value of Chinese legal tradition. By this article, we can find Chang Li-jun electively and positively accepted the legal system of the colony. So understanding the dimensions of how Chang Li-jun contacted with Western law will help us to reconsider the character of Japanese colonial law, which was not only regarded as the instruments of political oppression and economical exploitation. |