通常而言,我们大多数中国人容易认为,法律就是那个“白纸黑字”的条文,如果想知道法律是什么,把立法机关写下的“命令”翻一翻就可以了。可是,法律也许并不这么简单。假如揣摩一下西方国家的法官在有些案件尤其是疑难案件中是如何审理的,你会发现,法律的确要比我们想象得复杂一些。其实,西方越来越多的人倒对法律持有一种弹性的看法。他们认为,法律既有一目了然的,也有经过一番“磨砺”才能明确其内容的;前者是白 Generally speaking, most of us in China tend to think that law is the one that contains “black and white”. If we want to know what the law is, we can double the “order” written by the legislature. However, the law may not be that simple. If you try to figure out how judges in Western countries are tried in some cases, especially in difficult cases, you will find that the law is indeed more complicated than we imagined. In fact, more and more people in the West hold a flexible view on the law. They think that the law is clear at a glance, but also after some “honed” to clarify its content; the former is white