Privacy implications of evidence obtained through surveillance of electronic communication

My doctoral research project is situated at the intersection of evidence law and human rights law, and concerns the relationship between the right to privacy and rules of admittance or exclusion of evidence. The project will explore the theoretical meaning of the right to privacy, and the potential conflict between this right and the search for truth in legal procedure. Specifically, the investigation is focused on evidence obtained through surveillance of electronic communication, and will examine how this type of evidence is treated in Swedish law, compared to the legal system of England/Wales.

The primary research questions are the following: 1) What is “privacy” legally and philosophically? Are there different legal and philosophical understandings of the “the right to privacy”? 2) How does the right to privacy relate to exclusionary rules of evidence? How can privacy be weighed against the search for truth in legal procedure? 3) What implications do different understandings of privacy have on the legality and moral legitimacy of electronic surveillance in pre-trial investigations? How is information obtained through surveillance of electronic communication handled in the Swedish law of evidence compared to the law of England and Wales?