民初礦業糾紛之探究－－以平政院裁決為中心

The Research on Mining disbute in the Early Years of Republic of China Focus on the Judgement by Ping-Zheng Yuan (1914-1928)

北洋政府時期政局動盪不安，但民間礦業經營卻不顯蕭條而蓬勃發展。依據1914年制訂的《礦業條例》，礦業經營類型以官營礦業、民營礦業及外國人投資礦業三種為主。農商部為全國經濟事務的最高主管機關，統籌全國礦業經營與發展，地方主管機關則為各省實業廳所轄之礦科，分層處理所有礦業衍生的各類事項。民初礦業法令規定浩繁卻施行不力，礦商之間與主管機關時有爭端出現，為求定紛止爭與捍衛權益，當事人先採行訴願，不成時則將案件轉至最高行政訴訟機關──平政院，再行行政訴訟，以求撤銷對己不利之行政處分。平政院作為行政處分糾紛處理機構，除了反映中國現代的法律變遷外，亦展現國家行政機關依法行政的特色。該組織依據《平政院編制令》處理行政訴訟，提供遭受不利行政處分之人最後的救濟管道。民初礦業糾紛主要可分為礦區爭奪及礦業權糾紛等兩大類，對象有原告（礦商及其合夥人、法人）、被告（農商部）及參加人（相關案件之他造）。從平政院裁決的礦業糾紛案件觀之，礦業問題不隨著時代更迭而影響礦權效力，礦區有利可圖，往往會成為衝突不斷的原因之一，礦商開採過程中累積糾紛繁多，容易結下深厚仇怨，而礦法綿密卻又執行不力，往往致使礦商負擔沉重。整體來說，平政院的評事素質堪受重任，針對礦業糾紛，不因人廢事，依法論斷，礦商因而信賴透過行政訴訟捍衛自身權利。因此，觀察此類判決，對於民初礦商及其解決糾紛模式具有深刻的意義。

The political situation was in turmoil in the early years of the Republic of China, but mining industrywas still a booming industry at that time. According to Mining Ordinance in 1914, there were three groups in the mining industry, including companies run by the government, private companies, and private foreign investment. The central competent authority of mining was the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and the local competent authority of mining was under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Provincial Industrial Mine Branch to deal with matters of mining. Due to the fact that acts related to mining in the early years of Republic of China had little actual power, disputes always existed between government and bussinessmen. To settle the disputes, the parties involved (the miners) had to resort to petitions. If petitions failed to satisfy their needs, cases were then filed to the Ping-Zheng Yuan (the then Supreme Administrative Court) for administrative litigation, pleading to revoke the previous non-beneficial administrative actions or dispositions. The administrative court, Ping-Zheng Yuan, reflected the changes within the Chinese legal system, and was also able to perform administrative duties according to law. The plaintiffs (the miners and their partnership, corporations), the defendants (the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce) and participants (related cases, people or companies) were major objects in disputes for the mining industry. The causes of the disputes were mining contentions and conflicts in mining rights. If we review the cases, we can discover a few things. Firstly, the effectiveness of mineral rights would not be affected by the changing times. Secondly,mining interests became one of the main factors of disputes.Thirdly, mining businessmen often became opponents because of financialprofits. Besides this, there were a variety of rules and regulations in the mining industry. However, problems and issues could not be solved effectively among the businessmen. Therefore, if researchers today take this situation and the Ping-Zheng Yuan's case into consideration, one can find the key to how they settled disputes.