Surveillance and Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Surveillance and Democracy - Essay ExampleAs seen in s8(2) there has been built into the statute several excommunications which leaves the police force fair open to interpretation. Firstly, as held in Malone v UK (1984) 7 EHRR 14, the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence is not to be infringed upon unless there is statute to the contradictory to which the citizens are aware. As stated in Taylor (2002) the EU tourist court has been especially stringent with regard to personal communications (see Kopp v Switzerland (1999) 27 EHRR 91). In this depicted object, the court held that state infringement upon private communications of the citizens displayed a serious breach against their right to a private life.The EU Convention of Human Rights has maintained that if there is to be a breach of citizens right to private life it must be for a specific reasoned purpose, that is to say supported by sanctioned statute. The last area to consider within the framework of the EU Convention of Human Rights is to ascertain the match of individual citizens rights against that of the greater good. In short, according to Taylor (2002) this balance requires a test of proportions, essentially measuring the pros and cons. In short, it is imperative that the state within the legal framework on a case by case basis weigh the facts and determine if the great good will outweigh the individual infringement upon an individual citizen. As stated previous the EU as found in the Human Rights Act and as discussed previous has upheld that any infringement must be legitimized by state statute. This was upheld with regard to the tapping of personal phones in the UK. In Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner No.2 1979 2 WLR 700 the court held that the police had used a wiretap to obtain information regarding the defendants criminal activity. As the UK had no statute on the books legitimizing the wiretap and therefore infringement on the defendants right t o privacy with respect to personal communications the conviction was overturned upon appeal to the EU. even off though there had been prior precedent for wiretapping as established by the government without a binding legal framework, the EU found the legitimate exception rule had not been met.In an attempt to reactivity the lack of statute the UK passed the Interception of Communications Act 1985. However this act provide ineffective in providing the legal framework necessary to obtain little more than wiretaps for public telephones. In case and after case specific modes of communication were found to be exceptions to this law (i.e. cordless telephones, private networks etc). The statute was tested even further when the police used a listening device to obtain a confession and ultimate conviction of a heroine smuggler. On appeal within the UK in (R v Khan 1996 3 WLR 162, the court found that even if the confession were to be fit(p) later to be in breach of s(8) the court could no t justify overturning the verdict.The defendant did appeal to the EU and the court found t