刑法第一百四十條侮辱公務員及公署罪之保護法益之探討

Examining the Legally Protected Goods in Offenses of Insulting Public Officials and Public Offices

近年來有倡議廢除刑法第一百四十條侮辱公務員和公署罪的聲浪，本文認為是否廢除之前，應先瞭解該法條形成的過程、其在司法實務上的運作，以及本罪的其保護法益為何。本文首先分析探討刑法第一百四十條的形成過程，可以看到在晚清的大清刑律草案侮辱官吏罪和侮辱公署罪的規定是承襲自日本舊刑法和傳統中國法而來，用以維持身分制的秩序。從立法者原意來看，刑法第一百四十條的保護法益是維護威信。接著，本文觀察本條的司法實務，分析司法實務對本罪的侮辱之概念等構成要件及違法性層次之解釋，由此一方面瞭解實務上發展出不同於立法者原意的公務員或公署之「名譽」論的法益見解，看到司法實務在本條的構成要件解釋上寬嚴有別，影響到人民對於公署或公務員的意見表達，本文認為由於本罪涉及到人民的政治性言論之表達，應就相關要件加以嚴格解釋，避免壓制到人民的言論自由。最後，本文檢視保護法益之兩種見解，以傷害原則與冒犯原則為檢視基準，由此探討本罪存續與否之正當性，結論認為本罪應有刪除之必要。

In recent years, there have been advocates to abolish Article 140 of the Criminal Law of insulting public officials and offices. This article considers whether to abolish it or not as it is essential to understand the process of the formation of the law, its operation in judicial practice, and the protection of legal goods for this crime. This article firstly investigates the formation of Article 140 of the Criminal Law which can be seen in the late Qing Dynasty’s draft of the criminal law. Specifically, provisions and the old criminal law for the crime of insulting officials and the crime of insulting public offices was adopted from Japanese criminal law and the traditional Chinese law to maintain the order of identity system. Although the provisions of the old Japanese criminal law have become the structure of modern law, it is used to maintain the order of hierarchy. Therefore, from the original intention of the legislators, the protection of legal goods in Article 140 of the Criminal Law is to maintain the prestige of public affairs. Furthermore, this article regards individuals’ opinions on the public offices or public servants as their freedom of political communication. Based on this perspective and observations of the judicial practice of this crime, this article examines the two opinions of protecting legal interests with the harm principle and offense principle, discusses the legitimacy of the existence of this crime, and eventually concludes that this crime should be abolished.