المجلّة الجزائرية للقانون المقارن
Volume 3, Numéro 4, Pages 33-40
2020-01-20

Interception Of Communications In The Uk Law: Developments And Relativity To The Echr Jurisprudence

Authors : Al-rawashdeh Sami . Khalaileh Yaser .

Abstract

As the interception of private communications is now becoming one vital tool available for public surveillance authorities in combating criminal activities and the imposition of national security, the real exercise of this may, nevertheless, represent a serious threat to individual privacy. In the UK, the regulatory regime has witnessed a serious of modifications in a couple of decades. One might highlight the failure of the interception of communication regime under the Interception of Communications Act 1985 to reconcile competing demands of privacy and interests of security. Whether the 2000 Act and the updated framework under the 2016 Act addresses the question in a different fashion is also questionable. Hence, this paper is to determine whether these regimes have met the requirements of legality under the European system. Furthermore, it examines whether the requirements imposed by the European Convention on Human Rights requirements, namely the factors of ‘necessity’ and ‘proportionality’ are truly satisfied in the current UK legal system. Accordingly, it is argued that although the 2000 Act may represents a step towards the implementation of the principle of the legality and human rights legitimacy, it has, nonetheless, missed the opportunity to simplify the law, and was not clear in drawing the limit of the right of the state to intrude into the private life of citizens. In fact, this regime displays little respect for individual privacy. It is highly doubtful whether the introduced Act has gone through a process of human rights assessment and, therefore, the Act is likely to fall short of the requirements imposed by the European community. Indeed, the 2016 Act can be described as the biggest reform of the UK's surveillance regulation, yet, privacy experts have heavily criticized the measures it contains.

Keywords

Interception, Investigatory of Powers Act 2016, Privacy, European Convention.