Search and seizure of digital evidence Cover Image

Considerații asupra percheziției informatice
Search and seizure of digital evidence

Author(s): Paula Ciorea
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Published by: Editura Solomon
Keywords: safeguards; professional secrecy; specialist; computer search warrant; digital evidence; jurisprudence;

Summary/Abstract: The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the jurisprudence of United States’s courts pay particular attention to individual privacy. The search and seizure of digital evidence is a very invasive procedure that should be permitted only in extreme situations. In present, the procedure can be disposed whenever appears the need to gather digital evidence. There are examples of safeguards that are not enough respected, like the situation when the presence of the accused is not required because the search and seizure is disposed when the prosecution is in rem. It is essential to protect the right of the accused to be present at the search and seizure because the absence of the accused involve the imposibility to check if the other safeguards are respected and to make observations. Also, if the subject of the search and seizure is a lawyer, the procedure should be realised with the respect of the professional secrecy. The law can be improved by providing more safeguards in order to protect the humans rights and if the law is inspired by jurisprudence, then the solutions provided are already tested in time.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 41-77
  • Page Count: 37
  • Language: Romanian