A Study On The Legislation Of “Communication Security And Surveillance Act” In Taiwan

The communication surveillance is a special investigative measure in consideration of its secrecy and technical aspect.It could achieve better results in dealing with some cases that are difficult to detect by applying traditional investigative techniques.However,at the same time,the abuse of communication surveillance will infringe upon citizens’ legitimate rights and interests.Therefore,legislation is necessary to regulate the abusive conduct.China’s Taiwan region promulgated the Communication Security and Surveillance Act in 1999.It has,to a certain extent,filled the legal loopholes in the area of communications and surveillance in Taiwan and provided legal basis and institutional guarantee for the implementation of communications and surveillance activities.After revising four times,the law gradually matured.It finds a better balance between striking crimes and protecting citizens’ basic rights.Except the introduction and the conclusion,this thesis includes four parts.The first part is the legislative background and history of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act.It describes in detail the historical background,the development process,the revisions of the law,and explores the deep reasons behind the legislation and revisions.The second part mainly introduces the legislative principles of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act,namely,the principle of law reservation,the principle of proportionality,the principle of felony,and principle of retention of judges.The third part focuses on the analysis of the specific system construction of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act,including the scope of the case of the communication surveillance,the object of surveillance,the examination and approval procedures,legal enforcement,means of surveillance,the handling approaches of the obtained information as well as the legal relief system.The fourth part includes evaluation and analysis of Communication Security and Surveillance Act in Taiwan area,compared with the communication surveillance system abroad.Although there are still flaws in the communications surveillance system in Taiwan area,it deserves our legislative reference for its efforts to protect citizens’ right of privacy and right to correspondence freedom.