Karakulski, Jacek

Polish

Jagiellonian Univeristy Repository

Szczecin, June 14, 2023Jacek KarakulskiConstitutional Law DepartmentFaculty of Law and AdministrationJagiellonian University in CracowSUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION entitled. "The right to privacy and anti-terrorism regulations in a democratic state ruled by law".The anti-terrorism legislation is nowadays strongly expanding. Several regulations formulated in the framework of the implementation of counter- and combating terrorism policy are extremely intrusive in relation to the human rights protection system. One of the rights that is subject to particular limitation in this context is the right to privacy.The impact of anti-terrorism regulations on the extent of state interference in the multifaceted privacy of an individual is a research area that is extremely interesting. Its exploration constitutes the fulfilment of one of legal science's functions, which is not only to describe but also to reliably examine emerging or already existing regulations in the light of scientific knowledge using appropriate methods.This doctoral thesis is built around a central hypothesis based on the statement that the perspective of a terrorism threat causes a far-reaching limitation of the right to privacy possessing in this particular case a specific protection standard. Although it is relatively trivial on the surface, in reality none of its elements are obvious. Firstly, it is not - from a scientific point of view - academically clear what terrorism, and therefore the threat of terrorism, or even more precisely the risk of terrorism offences, is. Secondly, the right to privacy is a multifaceted right that is very difficult to define. Thirdly, answering the question concerning the specificity of the protection standard requires not only to establish what such standard is in general, but also to thoroughly verify whether its specificity is not merely a logical consequence of the threats' nature and in fact does not contain any deviation from the familiar principles of legitimate legislators' intrusion into the sphere of constitutional (and also internationally recognised) individual rights and freedoms.When conducting the research, a number of additional hypotheses were posed, which actually gave rhythm to the entire work. The verification of these hypotheses - and thus the totality of the extensive research involved - constitutes the essential scientific value of this work. The supporting hypotheses - described in detail in the Introduction (Chapter 1) - concerned: primary obligation of the state entity to provide security; conceptualisation and categorisation problems related to the value of security on constitutional grounds; relation of security values to fundamental human rights and freedoms; definition (in domestic and international law) of a terrorism crime; characteristics of a terrorism criminality; multifacetedness and an attempt to assess comprehensiveness of constitutional protection of privacy; standard of the right to privacy protection including the judicature co-shaping this standard; impact of the normative content of the democratic state ruled by law clause on the process of controlling the constitutionality of interference with rights and freedoms; mechanisms and institutions of the anti-terrorism law; comparative legal analyses (over the systems: Polish, French and Bielgian).The structure of the dissertation corresponds to the needs associated with the task of analysing the problems outlined above. For this reason, the first substantive chapter (Chapter 2) presents introductory remarks concerning, inter alia, the reasons for the increased legislative activity of states in this area and public sentiment. An overview of the characteristics of the terrorism phenomenon and its normative framing is also provided. This chapter also examines the state's obligation to provide security and outlines the risks associated with the populist narrative surrounding the fight against terrorism.Chapter 3 discusses the normative basis for the right to privacy, theoretical issues related to the notion of standard and detailed factors conditioning the constitutional standard of privacy protection, principles of limiting rights and freedoms (including those under conditions of states of emergency), anti-terrorist regulations being currently in force in Poland that interfere with broadly understood privacy, the jurisprudence of the constitutional court in the area related to the above issues, as well as the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court concerning the use against individuals of criminal-procedural regulations (corresponding to those provided for under anti­terrorism legislation, but not only) and of administrative courts in those cases in which they controlled the actions of state authorities related to anti-terrorist activities.Chapter 4 is dedicated to present the results of the analysis of foreign legal systems in the studied area. France and Belgium were taken into account in the research, as these two countries are located in a completely different situation (in terms of terrorism threat) and at the same time, together with Poland, are bound by EU regulations and the Convention (ECHR) system of individual rights protection.These supranational legal systems were also taken into consideration in the research (Chapter 5). Among other things, the perception of the terrorism threat problem by EU bodies and the ECtHR was verified. The normative basis and extent of privacy protection under these legal orders were identified, as well as the standard for the protection of the right to privacy in the context of anti-terrorism regulations resulting from the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and the CJEU.The dissertation is crowned by a Conclusion (Chapter 6), which brings together the most important findings, addressing the hypotheses formulated in the Introduction. This part of the thesis presents some comparative legal remarks, draws conclusions as to the supranational standards of privacy protection but also includes postulates referring strictly to national circumstances.

The right to privacy and anti-terrorism regulations in a democratic state ruled by law

https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/321959/karakulski_summary_of_the_doctoral_dissertation_2023.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

The right to privacy and anti-terrorism regulations in a democratic state ruled by law

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