Data Store and Spying Laws Found Illegal By EU Court

WillAffleckUW writes: The EU High Court found the United Kingdom's data retention (and subsequent storage and analysis) and surveillance laws to be illegal throughout the EU, which subsequently would be an argument in courts in Australia and Canada against their own spy laws. This effectively brings back the rule of law that all EU citizens have a right to privacy that is at the Bill of Rights level, not an easily short-circuited legal basis.

"The judges identified two key problems with the law: that it does not provide for independent court or judicial scrutiny to ensure that only data deemed 'strictly necessary' is examined; and that there is no definition of what constitutes 'serious offenses' in relation to which material can be investigated." It is uncertain that this would apply to U.S. spy laws, as a right of privacy is only inferred by U.S. high courts and is not written into constitutions as it is in the EU, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Comments

You think Harper gives a rat's ass?

[msobkow]

Fuhrer Harper doesn't give a rat's ass about our Constitution or Charter of Rights in Canada. His government has spent millions fighting lawsuits challenging their illegal legislation on a Charter basis, only to "tweak" the legislation when the courts mandated that the law must change, but never tweaking it to comply with the Charter, only to meet the courts demand that it change.

Fuhrer Harper is busy threatening the entire nation with an impending terrorist-inspired doom if we don't re-elect the Cuntservatives this fall. Have no doubt, C-51 (the most recent spying legislation) will be challenged in court and will lose, but that doesn't stop mein Fuhrer from pushing it through like the jackboot he is anyhow.