The War on Terror and the Deep Dilemma of Evidence

A workshop on

The War on Terror and the Deep Dilemma of Evidence
Kim Lane Scheppele
Director, Program in Law and Public Affairs, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and in the University Center for Human Values
Wednesday, 24 June 2015 from 14:30 – 17:00

This special workshop will address the common thread that runs through the constitutionally problematic aspects of the „global war on terror“ by exploring the role of security services in the collection of evidence. In the US (through the NSA) but also in Germany (through the BND), intelligence services are regulated through a much less specific framework than are the police, which makes the evidence they collect unsuitable for use in court as criminal evidence. As a result, there have been pressures for workarounds to the ordinary criminal justice system which in turn have created incentives in many constitutional-democratic states to use preventive detention, unconventional judicial fora, special trial rules, and more problematic adjustments to the normal constitutional framework. Prof. Scheppele will argue that until the security services are more strictly regulated, we can expect to see a constant undermining of constitutional principles in the name of fighting terrorism.

The Werkstattgepräche is a lecture series held at the juridical faculty of the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Selected speakers shed light on different topics around Internet law and current challenges of a digitalised society. Please find more details on the series of lectures here. We would be grateful if you could register here in case you wish to participate.