The Application Of Legal Formalism In Judicial Adjudication

The contents of Legal Formalism are very complex, which need to be combed. Based on Langdell’s views of Legal Formalism, the development of Legal Formalism has three stages, they are the extreme stage, the stage of criticism and the stage of rejection. There are two kinds of attitudes in Chinese judicial adjudication:the exclusion of Legal Formalism and the extreme application of Legal Formalism, and the former holds the dominant position. On the whole, our country’s judicial adjudication is lack of Legal Formalism thinking. The "sensible" and "reasonable" law in Chinese traditional justice, and the thinking of "legal pragmatism", occupy main position in judicial process. At present, some problems existed in our country’s justice, are related to the lack of Legal Formalism to some extent. It is necessary to take a comprehensive look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Legal Formalism in Chinese judicial background. There are differences in the degree of Legal Formalism, which is suitable for current judicial reforms, and should be promoted in judicial adjudication. The judges in judicial process should be in strict accordance with laws of the cases, but in difficult cases to consider the essences of cases, to bring about the legality and legitimacy of judicial adjudications.The main contents of this paper include three parts:introduction, text and conclusion.The introduction explains the reasons of choosing this topic, current situations and significance of studies about this topic. The emphasis of this part is to lay the foundation for the development of the text.The text contains four parts.The first part, explains the basic connotation of the Legal Formalism. Through the semantic analysis of Legal Formalism, we trace back to the basic concepts of Langdell’s Legal Formalism, and we try to define Legal Formalism. On this basis, we gaze the creation and evolution of Legal Formalism.The second part analyzes the advantages and shortcomings of Legal Formalism. The basic connotations reflect that Legal Formalism is in the pursuit of formal justice, legal logic rationality, legal certainty and legal security. At the same time, the Legal Formalism is not perfect, which ignores legal lags, fuzziness in the legal text, and the possible crisis of evil law.The third part is about the summary of Legal Formalism in Chinese situation. First of all, to sum up the "two kinds of attitude" in Chinese judicial adjudication, they are, the criticism and the extreme application of Legal Formalism. Secondly, we analyze the reasons behind this "two kinds of attitude", which reflect the misunderstanding of Legal Formalism.In the last part, we think about how to use the Legal Formalism in the judicial adjudication. First of all, the basic meaning of Moderate Legal Formalism is pointed out. Secondly, we analyze its scientific and feasibility. Then, we summarize the significance of Moderate Legal Formalism to Chinese judicial adjudication. Finally, this paper expounds the concrete ways of applying the Moderate Legal Formalism.In the part of conclusion, we focus on the positive effect of Moderate Legal Formalism on the promotion of "Strict Justice" in our country, the studies on Legal Formalism need to be strengthened.