再议国家秘密的概念

A Rethink of State Secrets’ Definition

不同国家、同一国家不同的历史时期,对国家秘密的概念有不同的界定。目前我国关于国家秘密的法律概念源自于1988年保密法。它从本质属性、程序属性和时空属性三个方面,对国家秘密的内涵作出了限定,是对我国保密工作实践经验的总结,具有一定规范性和科学性。随着定密管理的规范化、科学化发展,现行国家秘密概念暴露出内涵限定过多、外延过窄,与定密、保密管理以及密级鉴定制度规定存在不一致的问题。有必要结合实际,从逻辑上、法理上重新认识和梳理国家秘密的概念,对国家秘密下一个更为科学的定义,以推动定密工作、保密工作开展。

In 1988,Law of the People’s Republic of China on Guarding State Secrets gave a definition of state secrets for the first time in China,and the definition still has influence until now.The definition stipulates three attributes of state secrets,the essential attribute,procedure attribute and space-time attribute,and tries to regulate the scope of state secrets.However,with the strengthening of standard management,drawbacks of this definition are exposed.The most important one is that procedure and space-time should not be defined as attributes of state secrets.Therefore,it’s necessary to rethink and modify the definition.