留美杂记之五：塞耶方法：美国宪法绕不开的经典
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塞耶(Thayer)(1831-1902)
提起塞耶（Thayer），学习研究美国宪法的，应该都知道。塞耶1831年出生于马塞诸萨州，毕业于哈佛，之后任教于哈佛，其主要研究诉讼法、证据法、宪法等。其实从论著来看，塞耶把更多的时间放在了证据法之上，如他撰写了《证据法案例》（1892）、《陪审团审判的发展》（1896）、《普通法下证据的初步论述》（1898）等等。但是至今美国宪法学也许永远无法逃离塞耶及其方法，至少从目前来看是如此。比克尔(Bickle)、伊利(Ely)、图什内特(Tushnet)、佩里(Perry)、绍波（Choper）等等关于司法审查研究中的很多思想都无法离开塞耶（Thayer）的影子。
这很大程度上只源于塞耶的一片经典之作《美国宪法原则的起源与范围》。该文1893年发表于《哈佛法律评论》。该文发表后，很快便形成了塞耶方法（Thayerian），从而影响美国的宪法理论至今。塞耶在该文中较为详细地论述了立法权与司法权的关系、司法审查的原则等等问题。一百余年过去了！塞耶方法仍然回荡于美国宪法理论。
近日反复研读这篇一百年前的该文，收获之余，总会产生文章之外的些许感想。
为什么其是经典？什么是经典？对此当然有诸多阐释。然而我想经典的一个特征就是它任凭光阴的冲洗，仍然光彩夺人！
而学术与经典固然有着不可分割的关系。也许不夸张地说，无经典不成大师。当然，有可能每个人对经典的理解不同了。
中国的法学也坎坷地走了很长的路程。在这段路程中，单就回到民法、刑法等等部门法，我们的经典又何在呢？我们还会在图书馆研读我们几十年前，甚至一百年前的经典吗？
经典的学术作品固然产生于较为完备的学术环境。也许我们既需要经典，也需要更为完备的学术制度！当然，经典总是相对于垃圾，美国也是如此。因此，垃圾也是有价值的，有其存在的必要。也许有的经典就是从垃圾中过渡产生的。只是对于垃圾，不能到处丢弃，注意回收就好！
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中国宪政网编辑注： James Bradley Thayer
James Bradley Thayer (1831-1902), American legal writer and educationist, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the isth of January 1831. He graduated at Harvard College in 1852, and at the Harvard Law School in 1856, in which year he was admitted to the bar of Suffolk county and began to practice in
He wrote: The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law (1893); Cases on Evidence (1892); Cases on Constitutional Law (1895); The Development of Trial by Jury (1896); A Preliminary Treatise on Evidence at the Common Law (1898), and a short life of John Marshall (1901); and edited the twelfth edition of Kent's Commentaries and the Letters of Chauncey Wright (1877), and A Westward Journey with Mr. Emerson (1884). (b. Haverhill, Mass., 15 Jan. 1831; d. Cambridge, Mass., 14 Feb. 1902), scholarly authority on constitutional law. After nearly two decades of successful legal practice in Boston, Thayer became a member of the faculty of law at Harvard and one of a quadrumvirate there (the others being Christopher C. Langdell, James Barr Ames, and John Chipman Gray), who created the modern system of legal education known generally as the “case method.” Thayer was an authority on the law of evidence and on constitutional law. He is best remembered for his call for judicial self�\restraint in “The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law,” published in the Harvard Law Review 7 (1893), which was one of the first scholarly reconsiderations of judicial review. ― William M. Wiecek |
