Inter-Legality and Surveillance Technologies

Surveillance; new technologies; BVerfG; Constitutional Law; Constitutional Interpretation; public law; international law; European law; privacy; Human dignity; inter-legality

Abstract :

[en] On 19 May 2020, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that telecommunication surveillance of non-German individuals outside German territory violates the German Constitution. The reasoning of the Court entails a number of crucial questions both from the international and European human rights law perspective. The most important one being whether the German Federal Government is bound by the provisions of the German Constitution when it interferes with the rights of non-German individuals in a non-German territory. Relying on international human rights law, the Court answered affirmatively. The reasoning of the judgment has demonstrated a successful example of Inter-legality. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing the judgment from such a perspective through a three-step analysis: Taking the vantage point of the affair – the case at hand – under scrutiny, understanding the relevant normativities controlling the case, looking at the demands of justice stemming from the case. It concludes that such an inter-legal reasoning provided the Court to close ‘virtual legal black holes’, and avoid injustice.

Disciplines :

European & international law

Author, co-author :

BIBER, Sumeyye Elif ^✱; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF) > Department of Law (DL)

^✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.

External co-authors :

Language :

English

Title :

Inter-Legality and Surveillance Technologies

Publication date :

2021

Journal title :

Italian Law Journal

ISSN :

2421-2156

Publisher :

Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Italy

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

1041-1056

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Available on ORBilu :

since 16 February 2026

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