Study On The Boundary Of Excessive Rights Protection And Extortion Crime In Consumption Field

It is not uncommon for consumers to excessively protect their own rights and interests.Most scholars and judicial personnel in criminal law theory and judicial practice believe that such behavior does not constitute a crime,but there are also a few who hold a tendency to convict such behavior.This article uses the three-level crime theory system as an analytical tool,with the aim of clarifying the boundary between consumer excessive rights protection behavior and extortion crime.In the three-level crime theory system,determining whether consumers’ excessive rights protection behavior constitutes the crime of extortion requires a sequential review of compliance of constitutive elements,illegality,and responsibility.In the level of compliance of constitutive elements,the perpetrating behavior in the objective constituent elements and the subjective exceeding element in the subjective constituent elements are the core constituent elements.When determining whether consumers’ excessive protection of their own rights and interests constitutes the crime of extortion,it is necessary to always revolve around two core elements: Firstly,it is necessary to determine whether consumers have the purpose of illegal possession.If consumers do not have the purpose of illegal possession,the possibility of establishing the crime of extortion can be directly ruled out.If the consumer has the purpose of illegal possession,it is necessary to further determine whether the consumer’s excessive protection of their own rights and interests is a threatening act.If the consumer’s behavior belongs to threatening behavior,it can be determined that the consumer is guilty of extortion.On the contrary,consumers do not establish the crime of extortion,but it does not rule out the possibility of consumers establishing other crimes.In the level of illegality,there are various theories on the general principles of the ground for elimination of illegality,among which the three most representative theories are the social purpose theory,the social correspondence theory,and the legal interest measurement theory.Among them,the legal interest measurement theory is the most scientific and practical,and can be used as the general principle of ground for elimination of illegality.According to legal interest measurement theory,if consumers’ excessive rights protection behavior does not cause substantial property losses to the operator,then consumers are not guilty of extortion.In the level of responsibility,as a special type of excessive rights protection,hypothetical rights protection is essentially a permission constituent error.In the three-level criminal theory system of the continental legal system,illegality is an objective judgment,while responsibility is a subjective judgment.When consumers sincerely believe that there is a prerequisite fact that can prevent the violation of the law and therefore exercise their so-called rights,their behavior is a permission constituent error.There are various opinions on the handling of the permission constituent error in criminal law theory,including negative constituent element theory,limited liability theory,strict liability theory,and legal effect limited liability theory.Among them,the legal effect limited liability theory is the most reasonable.Following the stance of this theory,consumers’ hypothetical rights protection behavior can be ruled out as intentional,and in situations where there is no fault,it can be considered as an accident.However,in situations where there is fault,it still constitutes a negligent crime.