Institutional and Legal Challenges of Post-Snowden Surveillance in the United States and European Union

Abstract

The aim of the panel is to focus on the post-Snowden era as a time of the evolution of legal and political factors determining current surveillance policies of concrete states, mainly within the European Union, and/or the United States. The members of the panel should closer investigate the direction in which the legal regulations have been imposed as an effect of the 2013 Snowden revelations, as well as institutional changes which have occurred since then. The clash of law and politics may be observed in the governance of security measures used by the states, especially with an active role of (secret) executive agencies, parliamentary commissions/committees, and judicial actors, such as ordinary courts and special tribunals. These changes have a clear effect on the state of democracy and rule of law in certain countries, therefore the panel invites all papers which aim to research the relationship between law and politics in the area of surveillance, and papers which show the direction of the evolution of legal and political powers of institutions having impact on surveillance procedures. Concrete case studies, or comparative analysis, which are the main methods of analysis invited in the panel, may lead to general remarks concerning the character of the separation of powers principle, the checks and balances system, the institutional accountability, and the scope of the rights and freedoms of individuals. In a broader context the findings of research conducted by the panel members could refer to the contemporary relations between the secrecy and transparency of surveillance policies.