Study On Article 253 Of Criminal Law Of The People's Republic Of China

The citizens' rights to freedom of correspondence is an important law profit under the protection of Criminal Law. Article 253 of Criminal Law has stipulated crimes of any postal personnel's opening without authorization or concealing or destroying postal materials so as to rule and regulate postal service staff and protect the citizens' rights to freedom of correspondence. But as to the concepts, subjects and the objective essential conditions of this crime, as well as the stipulations of Article 253, Section 2 of Criminal Law and the characters of corporate crimes related to Article 253, there exist diverges to different degrees in the judicial practical and theoretical circles.In order to solve problems above, guide judicature practice better, fully protect the citizens'rights of person freedom and develop the protection function of Criminal Law, this thesis starts from studying the individual crime, searches the existing domestic research achievements, uses individual influential overseas theories for reference, simultaneously uses the comparison research, the historical research and case analysis methods and reaches the following conclusions:(1) Taking advantage of their positions is not the essential condition forming this crime, but taking advantage of their positions may form it.(2) Opening without the owner's permission or legal authorization is the essential condition of illegal opening. Concealment has the character of preventing owners of mails or telegrams from discovering them. Destruction has the character of making postal materials lose functions.(3) In order to protect the citizens' rights to freedom of correspondence, it is identified that postal personnel can be subjects of the crime.(4) E-mails belong to postal materials that are protected by Article 253 of Criminal Law.(5) Article 253, Section 2 of Criminal Law is identified as a caution. Postal personnel stealing property in postal materials shall be sentenced the Crime of corruption.(6) By studying the domestic and foreign corporate crimes theories, we believe as long as one of both sides is postal personnel and when they cooperate to open without authorization or conceal or destroy postal materials whether they use this status or not, they shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 253 of this Law. When postal personnel steal the whole postal materials, they shall be shall be punished according to the crime of embezzlement. When there exists a help criminal or an abettor, if non-postal personnel helps or abets postal personnel to open without authorization or conceal or destroy postal materials, then they constitute corporate crimes and shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 253 of this Law. But if postal personnel helps or abets non-postal personnel to open without authorization or conceal or destroy postal materials, then non-postal personnel shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 252 of this Law and postal personnel shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 252 of this Law.