Revista Jurídica Portucalense (Dec 2023)
Standards for Ensuring the Legality of Covert Activities in Criminal Proceedings Through the Prism of European Court of Human Rights
Abstract
The article deals with the implementation of covert activities in criminal proceedings through the prism of international acts, decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The purpose of the article is to analyse the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights (particularly, on the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of covert action in criminal proceedings), and on this basis to identify the standards for conducting covert investigative actions and to determine the impact of these standards on the legislation of certain European countries. The general philosophical basis of the study was formed by axiological and hermeneutical approaches. In particular, the first one allowed to carry out a value analysis of the fundamental human right to privacy and to assess the impact of covert investigative activities in criminal proceedings on its implementation. Meanwhile, the second made it possible to apply an in-depth study and interpretation of the legal texts of the European Court of Human Rights judgments and the legislation of particular states. When building the system of covert action standards, we used the systemic and structural method, as well as the logical research method and the method of legal modelling with. The analysis of the legal positions of the ECtHR made it possible to conditionally single out the following standards for ensuring the legality of the implementation of covert activity in criminal proceedings: (1) predictability; (2) warranty against abuse; (3) verifiability; (4) exclusivity; (5) proportionality of the intervention and its expediency; (6) inadmissibility of tacit interference in the communication of some subjects.
