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The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 2023, 5(7); doi: 10.25236/FSST.2023.050702.

The confrontation between legalism and consequentialism in difficult cases

Author(s)

Wen Zhang

Corresponding Author:
Wen Zhang
Affiliation(s)

Law School, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, China

Abstract

Legalism fails in the face of difficult cases, while consequentialism can start from the social consequences caused by the trial results, and consider social ethics, public opinion and other factors to make the trial results as much as possible in line with the public's moral values. Although consequentialism has certain advantages compared with legalism in handling difficult cases, it should not be arbitrarily enlarged or even blindly pursued. Consequentialism also has limitations in application. Even so, consequentialism can be justified in the aspects of ethics and economic analysis. Except for the influence of the judges' own factor, our country still adopts legalism to reason cases as the mainstream. So to cater to the mainstream legalism, the judges should not implicate their thinking process when they hear cases. In addition, the judge will also be affected by factors outside the case, the judge must learn to "judge the situation" when hearing the case, but the judge cannot inform the public, implicit thinking is the current judge's helpless action.

Keywords

Difficult cases; reasoning; legalism; consequentialism; implicit thinking

Cite This Paper

Wen Zhang. The confrontation between legalism and consequentialism in difficult cases. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2023) Vol. 5, Issue 7: 7-12. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2023.050702.

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