譯者｜阮婧研 中國政法大學本科
一審｜李梓源 英國布里斯托大學LL.M.
二審｜王槐語 加州大學伯克利分校LL.M.
編輯｜Susan 中國政法大學研究生
責編｜扎恩哈爾 新疆農業大學本科
The University of Chicago Law Review Volume 91.2, Number 3 | March 2024
《芝加哥大學法律評論》第91.2卷第3篇
Advancing Racial Justice Through the Restatement of Children and the Law: The Challenge, the Intent, and the Opportunity
透過《兒童與法律重述》推進種族正義：挑戰、意圖與機遇
Kristin Henning
ABSTRACT
摘要
The ALI launched the Restatement of Children and the Law to bring clarity and coherence to the increasingly complex and uncertain landscape of the juvenile court and the law related to children. As the Restatement surveys the courts’ growing respect for the developmental plasticity and potential of children, it is crucial that the law afford all youth—regardless of race and class—the full benefits of the developmental research and enhanced procedural protections.
美國法律協會發布了《兒童與法律重述》，其旨在使日益複雜且不確定的少年法庭和與兒童相關的法律更加清晰和連貫。隨著《重述》對法院日益尊重兒童發展的可塑性和潛能展開調查，法律必須讓所有青少年——不論種族和階級——充分受益於發展研究和更強的程式保護，這一點至關重要。
Despite the limitations of any project that seeks primarily to recite existing law, this Restatement has great potential to advance racial equity in the care and regulation of youth. The Restatement should tell a complete story, including information to help readers understand how youth of color are impacted by the law. By painstakingly locating and embracing judicial opinions that acknowledge the role of race in juvenile, criminal, and family law, and by incorporating relevant history, data, research, and analysis, the Restatement can serve a crucial role in educating readers on the sources of and remedy for racial inequities in the various legal systems that affect children.
儘管任何主要旨在重述現有法律的專案都存在侷限性，但本《重述》在促進青少年關懷和監管的種族平等方面具有巨大潛力。本《重述》將講述一個完整的故事，包括幫助讀者瞭解有色人種青年如何受到法律影響。透過精心查詢和納入承認種族在青少年法、刑事法和家庭法中發揮作用的司法意見，以及透過納入相關歷史、資料、研究和分析，本《重述》可以發揮關鍵作用，以使讀者瞭解各類影響兒童的法律體系中種族不平等的根源和補救措施。
INTRODUCTION
引言
The Restatement of Children and the Law explores the regulation of children in four categories: “Children in Families,” “Children in Schools,” “Children in the Justice System,” and “Children in Society.” Each category surveys the laws that facilitate or guard against the intrusion of the state into the lives of young people. Despite the state’s ostensibly noble aims, racial bias often frustrates children’s interactions with the law. Even state interventions that are meant to protect and aid children often reflect societal biases that disproportionately harm historically marginalized youth.
《兒童與法律重述》探討了兒童在四個類別中的監管情況：“家庭中的兒童”“學校中的兒童”“司法系統中的兒童”和“社會中的兒童”。每個類別均對促進或防止國家干預青少年生活的法律展開了調查。儘管國家表面上有著崇高的目標，但種族偏見往往會阻礙兒童與法律的互動。即便是旨在保護和幫助兒童的國家干預措施也往往反映出社會偏見，而這些偏見不成比例地傷害著歷史上被邊緣化的青年們。
When the state intervenes to protect children at risk of abuse from family members, bias frequently leads the state to remove Black and Indigenous youth from their homes at disproportionately high rates. When schools discipline youth to maintain order and mold them into responsible citizens, stereotypes of violence and myths of intellectual inferiority commonly influence how staff and teachers manage Black and Latino youth and contribute to overly punitive responses to their normal adolescent behaviors. When police intervene to keep youth and the public safe, they often increase surveillance in communities of color and routinely interpret innocent or ambiguous behaviors among Black and Latino youth as suspicious.
當國家介入以保護面臨家庭虐待風險的兒童時，偏見往往導致國家以過高的比例將黑人和土著青年從家中帶走。當學校為了維持秩序和將青年塑造成負責任的公民而對其進行紀律處分時，暴力的刻板印象和智力低下的錯誤觀念常常影響教職工和教師管理黑人和拉丁裔青年的方式，並導致其對正常青少年行為作出過度懲罰性的反應。當警察介入以保護青年和公眾安全時，其往往增加對有色人種社群的監視，並經常將黑人和拉丁裔青年的無辜行為或模糊行為解釋為可疑行為。
(圖片源自網路）
The disparate treatment of youth in each of these contexts—family, school, and community—increases the likelihood that youth of color will enter our nation’s juvenile and criminal legal systems. Once in these systems, children of color are especially vulnerable to the coercive nature of police interrogation and are further disadvantaged in the adjudicative process when they are judged by traditional legal standards that fail to account for racial bias and the traumatic effects of policing in communities of color.
在家庭、學校和社群等各類環境中，有色人種青年所受到的特殊待遇，增加了其進入美國青少年和刑事法律系統的可能性。一旦進入這些系統，有色人種兒童就特別容易受到警察審訊的脅迫，並且在裁決過程中處於更加不利的地位，因為傳統的法律標準未能考慮到有色人種社群中種族偏見與監管帶來的創傷性影響。
Youth of color are also more likely to face harsh and punitive sentences that ignore the developmental science that mitigates adolescent culpability and urges a more rehabilitative response to adolescent offending. The American Law Institute’s (ALI) release of its first Restatement of Children and the Law provides an important opportunity to assess the law’s role in perpetuating these disparities and its power to dismantle them.
有色人種青年也更有可能面臨嚴厲和具有懲罰性的判決；這些判決忽視了發展科學，而發展科學可以減輕青少年的罪責，並敦促（相關主體）對青少年犯罪採取更具改造性的應對措施。美國法律協會發布第一版《兒童與法律重述》，為評估法律延續上述差異的作用與消除上述差異的能力提供了一次重要的機會。
By its very name, a restatement is a recitation of existing law. As such, we cannot expect it to do the radical work of transforming oppressive systems that were designed from their outset to limit and control indigent families and people who look different from those in power. We also cannot expect it to eliminate generations of deeply entrenched biases that drive fears and cause people to criminalize youth of color. However, with some intention and nuance, a restatement can guide, shape, and even push the law toward racial justice by embracing those rules, judicial opinions, and legal standards within the common law that reduce unnecessary intrusions into the lives of children and offer the greatest procedural protections for all youth when intrusions are necessary.
顧名思義，重述就是對現有法律的複述。因此，我們不能期望它徹底改變壓迫性制度，那些制度從設計之初就旨在限制和控制貧困家庭以及與當權者“外表”不同的人。我們也不能期望它能消除世代根深蒂固的偏見，這些偏見會引發恐懼，並導致人們將有色人種青年定罪。然而，透過一些意念和細微差別，重述可以透過接受普通法中的規則、司法意見和法律標準來指導、塑造甚至推動法律走向種族正義，這些規則、司法意見和法律標準可以減少對兒童生活的不必要干預，並在必要時為所有青年提供最大限度的程式保護。
(圖片源自網路）
The Restatement of Children and the Law includes black-letter rules, “comments” that describe the basis of the black letter, “illustrations” that provide concrete and real-world examples of the black-letter law, and “reporters’ notes” that further elaborate on the rules by analyzing judicial authority and other material of interest. The Restatement also includes a series of “introductory notes”—at the beginning of the project and at the start of each section—that frame the overarching themes and principles undergirding the work.
《兒童與法律重述》包含黑體字規則*本身、描述黑體字規則基礎的“評註”、提供黑體字規則的具體而現實的“示例”、透過分析司法權威和其他利益相關的材料以進一步闡述規則的“報告人註釋”。《重述》還包括在專案開始時和每節開始時的一系列“介紹性註釋”，這些註釋構成了支撐這項工作的總體主題與原則。
Even when the black-letter law does not explicitly address race, these additional elements of the Restatement allow the reporters to identify emerging trends; incorporate data and science on adolescent development, cognitive bias, and the traumatic effects of state interventions; and offer rationales for Restatement rules that might reduce racial inequities.
即使黑體字規則沒有明確提及種族，《重述》的這些附加元素也使報告人能夠識別出新興趨勢；納入關於青少年發展、認知偏見和國家干預的創傷效應的資料和科學；併為可能減少種族不平等的《重述》規則提供理論依據。
*黑體字規則：指用黑體字表述的無爭議的，普遍適用的規則。一般而言，法律重述主要包括四方面內容：黑體字規則（Black-letter Law），評註（Comment），示例（Illustration）和報告人註釋（Reporter’s notes）。
Racial inequities are addressed to varying degrees in at least three of the four sections of the Restatement of Children and the Law. This Essay evaluates whether and how well this Restatement advances racial justice and identifies additional opportunities for the ALI to address racial inequities now and in future iterations of the Restatement.
在《兒童與法律重述》的四個部分中，至少有三個部分在不同程度上涉及了種族不平等問題。本文旨在評估該《重述》是否以及在多大程度上促進了種族正義，並探討美國法律協會在現在和將來的《重述》版本中解決種族不平等問題的更多機會。
(圖片源自網路）
The Essay begins in Part I with an acknowledgement of the challenges that any reporter will face in drafting a restatement to achieve radical reform.
本文第一部分首先承認，任何報告人在起草重述以實現徹底改革時都會面臨挑戰。
Part II recognizes that the reporters for the Restatement of Children and the Law were concerned about the harmful impacts of racial bias in the laws and systems that impact children and hoped their commentary and analysis would highlight and reduce those harms. Specifically, Part II identifies examples from “Children in Families,” “Children in Schools,” and “Children in the Justice System” to show how the reporters effectively addressed race in their comments, reporters’ notes, and illustrations.
第二部分認識到，《兒童與法律重述》的報告人們關注到法律和制度中種族偏見對兒童的有害影響，並希望他/她們的評註和分析能夠凸顯並減少這些危害。具體而言，第二部分從“家庭中的兒童”、“學校中的兒童”和“司法系統中的兒童”中選取例證，以展示報告人如何在評註、報告人註釋和示例中有效解決種族問題。
Part III recognizes that our understanding of racial disparities and their root causes is ever evolving as new research emerges, and a small but growing number of judges across the country make decisions that acknowledge the importance of race in society and establish much-needed safeguards for people of color in the legal system. Focusing on selections from “Children in the Justice System,” Part III capitalizes on the opportunity created by this rapidly changing landscape to identify additional areas of the Restatement that can reduce harm and increase protections for youth of color.
第三部分認識到，隨著新研究的出現，我們對種族差異及其根源的理解正不斷演變，全國範圍內也有少量但正變得越來越多的法官在裁決中承認種族在社會中的重要性，併為法律系統中的有色人種建立急需的保障措施。第三部分聚焦於“司法系統中的兒童”的選段，利用這一迅速變化的環境創造的機會，可確定《重述》中能減少危害、增加對有色人種青年保護的其他領域。
The Conclusion recognizes that as the reporters near the end of this work, there is still time to edit the reporters’ notes and urges the ALI to create mechanisms to quickly update the Restatement without reconvening their advisers for a second Restatement of Children and the Law.
結論部分認識到，儘管報告人的這項工作接近尾聲，但報告人註釋仍可進一步完善，並可敦促美國法律協會建立相關機制，以期在不重新召集顧問撰寫第二次《兒童與法律重述》的情況下快速對其進行更新。
CONCLUSION
結論
The ALI launched the Restatement of Children and the Law to bring clarity and coherence to the increasingly complex and uncertain landscape of the juvenile court and the law related to children. As the Restatement surveys the courts’ growing respect for the developmental plasticity and potential of children, it is crucial that the law afford all youth—regardless of race and class—the full benefits of the developmental research and enhanced procedural protections.
美國法律協會發布了《兒童與法律重述》，其旨在使日益複雜且不確定的少年法庭和與兒童相關的法律更加清晰和連貫。隨著《重述》對法院日益尊重兒童發展的可塑性和潛能展開調查，法律必須讓所有青少年——不論種族和階級——充分受益於發展研究和更強的程式保護。
Despite the limitations of any project that seeks primarily to recite existing law, this Restatement has great potential to advance racial equity in the care and regulation of youth. The Restatement should tell a complete story, including information to help readers understand how youth of color are impacted by the law. By painstakingly locating and embracing judicial opinions that acknowledge the role of race in juvenile, criminal, and family law, and by incorporating relevant history, data, research, and analysis, the Restatement can serve a crucial role in educating readers on the sources of and remedy for racial inequities in the various legal systems that affect children.
儘管任何主要旨在重述現有法律的專案都存在侷限性，但本《重述》在促進青少年關懷和監管方面的種族平等上具有巨大潛力。本《重述》將講述一個完整的故事，包括幫助讀者瞭解有色人種青年如何受到法律影響。透過精心查詢和納入承認種族在青少年法、刑事法和家庭法中發揮作用的司法意見，以及透過納入相關歷史、資料、研究和分析，本《重述》可以發揮關鍵作用，以使讀者瞭解各類影響兒童的法律體系中種族不平等的根源和補救措施。
The reporters have already given significant attention to the historical and contemporary racial disparities that persist in the regulation of children in their families, school, and the justice system. They have also highlighted the unique challenges and pressures youth of color face in contact with law enforcement.
報告人們已經對家庭、學校和司法系統中兒童監管方面持續存在的歷史的及當代的種族差異給予了大量關注。他/她們還強調了有色人種青年在與執法部門接觸時面臨的獨特挑戰和壓力。
(圖片源自網路）
And yet, the growing body of research on adolescent development, racial trauma, stereotype threat, and cognitive biases in policing, along with new and emerging trends in the law, make it clear that a Restatement of Children and the Law can do even more to advance racial justice in this field. Even now, as the black letter and comments have been completed, the reporters can modify their notes to amplify their great work and provide even more race-related context and legal analysis to guide and even push the law toward equity.
然而，越來越多的關於青少年發展、種族創傷、刻板印象威脅和警察執法中認知偏見的研究，以及法律領域的新趨勢都清楚地表明，《兒童與法律重述》可以在這方面進一步推動種族正義。即使是現在，隨著黑體字規則和評註的完成，報告人們仍可以修改他/她們的註釋以擴大其工作，並提供更多與種族相關的背景和法律分析，以指導甚至推動法律走向公平。
Finally, as the reporters close out this inaugural edition of the Restatement of Children and the Law, the ALI should also be thinking about how the Restatement can be updated with greater ease in the future. Advances in research and changes to the law itself will not wait until it is convenient to draft the Restatement (Second) of Children and the Law. The reporters might consider producing a periodic supplement or releasing online updates to keep the Restatement current and comprehensive.
最後，在報告人們即將完成《兒童與法律重述》的首版之際，美國法律協會也應思考如何在未來更便捷地更新該重述。研究和法律本身的變革不會等到《兒童與法律重述》（第二版）起草時才發生。報告人們或許可以考慮定期釋出補充內容或線上更新，以保持該《重述》的時效性和全面性。
原文連結：
https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archive/advancing-racial-justice-through-restatement-children-and-law-challenge-intent-and