Abstract

The research attempts to begin with the logic core to study the effects of e-mail’s technical characteristics on e-mail evidence system or traditional evidence system. In addition to the introduction and conclusion section，the book is divided into nine chapters. The introduction section illustrates the pragmatic and urgency of e-mail evidence with a case about criminal e-mail evidence.

The first chapter starting from the impact of the electric evidence on traditional concept of evidence，rules and principles of evidence，it illustrates the underlying causes of the conflicts between the technical methods and legal regulations. The second chapter defines the basic concepts of the e-mail evidence. Based on the analysis of the relationship between e-mail evidence and traditional evidence，this chapter indicates the improper limitation of the traditional evidence to the e-mail evidence. The introduction of the e-mail evidence system factors can not only form impact on traditional conception of evidence，but also interact with the subject which forms the dual attributes of the concept of e-mail evidence. On the basis of this，the legislation should expand the core elements of the traditional concept of evidence and explain the traditional concept of evidence.

Chapter Three focuses on the significance of systematic research. In addition，this chapter also briefly introduces the main content of the systematic research on e-mail evidence. What’s more，it proposes corresponding rules which can apply to the cross-coincident problems among the various types of e-mail evidence. Chapter Four focuses on the analysis of encrypted e-mail’s effect on its probative force.

Chapter Five focuses on the analysis of issues relating to the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy protection issues. Correspondingly，as to the junk e-mail evidence，the analysis stresses guaranteeing the operation of “public rights”.

Taking the transfer status as the standard，chapter Six divides e-mail evidence into dynamic e-mail evidence and static e-mail evidence. Based on the analysis of the principle of e-mail transmission，this chapter proposes to distinguish between dynamic e-mail evidence and static e-mail evidence according to technological and legal criteria. With this partition，it can affect the way of investigation. Dynamic e-mail evidence mainly refers to evidence under secret surveillance，while static e-mail evidence mainly refers to evidence under the general search and collection. The difference of content of evidence will extend to affect the choice of means of investigation and evidence collection.

In chapter Seven，on the basis of the definition of secure e-mail and virus e-mail，it investigates their difference on the carrier and method of proof. Different virus mechanism will affect the credibility and probative force of e-mail evidence. The e-mail evidence which is affected by virus can be divided into pathogen-style e-mail evidence and inputting infectious type of e-mail. The above e-mail evidence will face the problems that after transferring into secure e-mail，whether these evidence has the probative force or the size of the probative force.

Chapter Eight primarily talks about the outstanding problems of sound e-mail evidence. Audio e-mail evidence is different from audio-visual materials for the mail server system factors. It’s essential character lies in the synthesis of a variety of server. And also because of the characteristics，the related subject and object have a modest expansion. The expansion of relative subject will affect the sum of evidence exchange，while the limited expansion of relative object can make great influence on its credibility. Specially，the use of speech synthesis techniques will affect the credibility of audio e-mail. Based on the technology，it’s necessary to construct legal system of sound e-mail evidence.

Chapter Nine emphasizes the criminal presumption in LAN e-mail evidence and WAN e-mail evidence. LAN e-mail users are specific，while WAN e-mail users are public. The difference of network becomes the divergence of LAN e-mail evidence and WAN e-mail evidence. Based on the technical diversion，narrow criminal presumption can be applied to e-mail evidence under the protection of the LAN environment，strict confidentiality and acceptable use policy. On the other hand，generalized criminal presumption can be applied to WAN e-mail evidence on the basis of “the presumption of reliability” and “the certainty of level construction”.

Key Words：E-mail Evidence；Credibility of Evidence；Probative Force