European Court of Human Rights Rules U.K. Surveillance Violates Convention (September 13, 2018) [1]
On September 13, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled [3] on three joined applications in Big Brother Watch and Others v. The United Kingdom that some part of the U.K. surveillance regimes violated the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life/communications) and Article 10 (right to freedom of expression and information). The press release [4] notes that the original complaints—filed in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding U.S. and U.K. surveillance and intelligence sharing programs—concerned three surveillance regimes: “(1) the bulk interception of communications; (2) intelligence sharing with foreign governments; and (3) the obtaining of communications data from communications service providers.” The Court found that the bulk interception regime violated the Convention due to “inadequate independent oversight of the selection and search processes involved in the operation” and because “there were no real safeguards applicable to the selection of related communications data for examination.” The Court also held that the acquisition of communications from communications service providers violated the Convention because it lacked safeguards regarding limiting such regimes to the purpose of combating “serious crime” and for allowing prior review by an independent administrative body.