Intervention in Electronic Communications

Abstract

Judicial intervention in private communications, especially electronic ones, requires compliance with mandatory requirements in order to grant legitimacy and avoid procedural nullity. In Spain it is the doctrine of the courts that continues to establish these requirements. There is a need for urgent reform of the procedural law governing such action. Validly incorporating digital material to the process requires action specific to how records are filed and how expert intervention is processed, the court clerk’s authority to attest documents and compliance with the so-called chain of custody to prevent its alteration. There would be a violation of fundamental European rights on personal data protection, on freedom of communication and freedom of enterprise in the indiscriminate filtering of all Internet service providers customers, if general and indiscriminate legal measures are to be taken to stop or prevent file downloads of intellectual property using peer-to-peer software.