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Full-Text Articles in Law
Designing Surveillance Law, Patricia L. Bellia
Designing Surveillance Law, Patricia L. Bellia
Journal Articles
As communications surveillance techniques become increasingly important in government efforts to detect and thwart criminal and terrorist activities, questions of how to reconcile privacy and law enforcement interests take on paramount importance. These questions have institutional as well as substantive dimensions. That is, the issue is not simply what the limits on communications surveillance should be, but who should set them — courts through application of the Fourth Amendment or legislatures through statutes and the oversight process? The scholarly literature offers divergent positive and normative perspectives on these questions.
For most scholars, the question of who should regulate communications surveillance …
Fourth Amendment Protection For Stored E-Mail, Patricia L. Bellia, Susan Freiwald
Fourth Amendment Protection For Stored E-Mail, Patricia L. Bellia, Susan Freiwald
Journal Articles
The question of whether and how the Fourth Amendment regulates government access to stored e-mail remains open and pressing. A panel of the Sixth Circuit recently held in Warshak v. United States, 490 F.3d 455 (6th Cir. 2007), that users generally retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the e-mails they store with their Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which implies that government agents must generally acquire a warrant before they may compel ISPs to disclose their users' stored e-mails. The Sixth Circuit, however, is reconsidering the case en banc. This Article examines the nature of stored e-mail surveillance and argues …
The Memory Gap In Surveillance Law, Patricia L. Bellia
The Memory Gap In Surveillance Law, Patricia L. Bellia
Journal Articles
U.S. information privacy laws contain a memory gap: they regulate the collection and disclosure of certain kinds of information, but they say little about its retention. This memory gap has ever-increasing significance for the structure of government surveillance law. Under current doctrine, the Fourth Amendment generally requires government agents to meet high standards before directly and prospectively gathering a target's communications. The law takes a dramatically different approach to indirect, surveillance-like activities, such as the compelled production of communications from a third party, even when those activities yield the same information as, or more information than, direct surveillance activities. Because …
Surveillance Law Through Cyberlaw's Lens, Patricia L. Bellia
Surveillance Law Through Cyberlaw's Lens, Patricia L. Bellia
Journal Articles
The continuing controversy over the surveillance-related provisions of the USA Patriot Act highlights the depth of Americans' concern about internet privacy. Although calls to limit the government's surveillance powers strike a chord with the public, the legal framework governing surveillance activities is highly technical and poorly understood. The Patriot Act's sunset date provides Congress with an opportunity to revisit that framework.
This Article seeks to contribute to the debate over the appropriate scope of internet surveillance in two ways. First, the Article explores the intricacies of the constitutional and statutory frameworks governing electronic surveillance, and particularly surveillance to acquire electronic …
Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia
Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia
Journal Articles
As computer crime becomes more widespread, countries increasingly confront difficulties in securing evidence stored in electronic form outside of their borders. These difficulties have prompted two related responses. Some states have asserted a broad power to conduct remote cross-border searches - that is, to use computers within their territory to access and examine data physically stored outside of their territory. Other states have pressed for recognition of a remote cross-border search power in international fora, arguing that such a power is an essential weapon in efforts to combat computer crime. This Article explores these state responses and develops a framework …