[2] Asserting rights is a spiritual duty of self-protection; completely abandoning rights is spiritual suicide.

[3] —Jhering, *The Struggle for Law*

　　1. 引子

[4] The German legal thinker Jhering, in his famous work *The Struggle for Law*, points out that all rights face the danger of being infringed upon or suppressed, because the interests claimed by the right-holder often conflict with the interests of others who deny those claims. Therefore, the prerequisite for enjoying rights lies in being always ready to assert them; to realize rights, one must always be prepared to struggle for them. Jhering strongly opposed the view of another German legal thinker, Savigny, who argued that "the formation of law, like the formation of language, occurs unconsciously and spontaneously, without any struggle or conflict." Jhering reminds us not to complacently indulge in the illusion of a so-called "spontaneous evolutionary order," but to rely on struggle to win rights and summon the law. In a fog of fear, an increasing number of people joining the struggle is the only way to save themselves and, in turn, others. Jhering says, "The goddess of justice holds in one hand the scales to weigh rights, and in the other the sword prepared to assert them. The sword without the scales is naked violence; the scales without the sword signify the weakness of law. The scales and the sword depend on each other, and the point where the power of the goddess's sword and the skill of operating the scales are balanced is precisely where a sound legal state exists."

[5] Jhering asserts that the struggle for rights is not only the right of every citizen to assert their own interests but also a duty of the citizen. In Jhering's view, self-preservation is the highest law of the entire biological world; every living being has an instinct for self-maintenance. For humans, self-preservation concerns not only natural life but also moral existence, and the prerequisite for moral existence is rights. Asserting rights is a form of moral self-preservation. Based on this understanding, Jhering further passionately praises the litigious spirit. In his view, even a farmer who engages in tedious litigation to assert ownership of a single inch of land, even if it is entirely uneconomical, is worthy of affirmation. For the purpose of such litigation is not the trivial object of value, but the assertion of the litigant's complete personality as a free person and their sound "legal feeling" (a term Jhering uses to denote a special attitude of faith and reliance on the law). Compared to this purpose, all sacrifices and efforts brought by litigation are insignificant to the right-holder—because the end fully compensates for the means. Even Shylock, scorned and mocked in Shakespeare's *The Merchant of Venice*, becomes a "powerful and majestic" man by shouting, "I want the law!"

[6] Moreover, the struggle for rights is not only a duty of the right-holder to themselves but also a duty to the collective. This relates to the relationship between rights and law: specific rights derive life and strength from abstract law, and in turn, they give life and strength to abstract law. The essence of law lies in its actual enforcement. If, due to the right-holder's laziness or fear, rights in a specific legal relationship are long and generally unexercised, the legal norm prescribing that right falls into a state of paralysis. It can be said that the right-holder upholds statutory law by asserting their rights, and through upholding statutory law, defends the indispensable legal order of the human collective.

In other words, it is not impermissible under the law for a person to relinquish their rights, because rights are merely a choice of freedom, and the party concerned can decide based on their own judgment whether to give up rights for peace or sacrifice peace for rights. However, from a utilitarian perspective examining its social impact, the act of relinquishing rights is very dangerous, because when such behavior becomes a widespread social phenomenon, it undoubtedly condones and encourages illegal acts, severely challenging the authority of the law itself, preventing the law from functioning, and making it difficult to maintain social order.

During the compilation of this book, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a decision to comprehensively advance the rule of law, reflecting the inertial trend of promoting the rule of law from the top down with Chinese characteristics, but this is only superficial. The real driving force behind the progress of the rule of law in China is this social factor: the widespread differentiation of interests in contemporary Chinese society, with these differentiated interests constantly engaging in fierce competition and struggle. The competition and struggle among interests are essentially the competition and struggle between different rights and between rights and power. Fighting for interests is fighting for rights. When a lawyer accepts a client's commission and participates in the competition and struggle among interests, on one hand, it amplifies the intensity of this competition and struggle, and on the other hand, it channels the competition and struggle among conflicting interests into the track of the rule of law. The mutual competition and struggle of different interests are the true driving factors for the progress of the rule of law in our society, and lawyers are the key force that can ensure this driving factor plays a positive role in advancing the rule of law.

We lawyers, as important members of the legal community, may have encountered Jhering's doctrine of "fighting for rights" during our legal education and training, but very few truly grasp the essence of the concept of "fighting for rights" and unwaveringly practice it in every aspect of their professional life and work. Lawyer Wang Tengfeng strictly positions himself as a litigation lawyer, often taking pride in his litigation art, strategic skills, and courtroom eloquence, even somewhat extreme in believing that non-litigation business is not the proper duty of a lawyer. You may think he is somewhat arrogant, or that his views do not align with modern legal service awareness, but if you get to know him deeply, you have to admit that Lawyer Wang Tengfeng is an unyielding rights warrior and legal guardian, with fighting for rights being almost his entire life, both for his clients and for himself. Lawyer Wang Tengfeng's steadfast and persistent spirit of the rule of law is evident in his service to clients, always demonstrating extraordinary "legal power," often turning the tide, rescuing people from danger, and achieving countless victories; in protecting his own rights, he similarly disregards conventional etiquette, prioritizing the law alone, moving forward without hesitation, until rights are upheld and the rule of law is manifested!

　　(待续)