Suchergebnisse

With the objective of controlling the spread of the coronavirus, the UK has decided to create and, since 5 May 2020, is live testing a digital contact tracing app, under the direction of NHS X, a branch of NHS Digital, and with the help of the private sector. Given the lack of details as to what the app will exactly do or not do, there are fears that the project will increase government surveillance beyond the pandemic. While I share these concerns, I argue that we need to simultaneously tackle one of the most significant, yet overlooked, contributors to the problem of government surveillance: our inflated digital footprint, stemming from our use of digital technology, and the basis of 'surveillance capitalism', a business model left largely unchallenged, which results in surveillance, and stems from the non-compliance with data protection laws. A systematic enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the private sector would disrupt the current dynamics of surveillance which are hidden in plain sight.

Despite the recent push towards security by design, most softwares and hardwares on the market still include numerous vulnerabilities, i.e. flaws or weaknesses whose discovery and exploitation by criminal hackers compromise the security of the networked and information systems, affecting millions of users, as acknowledged by the 2016 UK Government in its Cybersecurity Strategy. Conversely, when security researchers find and timely disclose vulnerabilities to vendors who supply the IT products or who provide a service dependent on the IT products, they increase the opportunities for vendors to remove the vulnerabilities and close the security gap. They thus significantly contribute to the fight against cybercrime and, more widely, to the management of the digital security risk. However, in 2015, the European Network and Information Security Agency concluded that the threat of prosecution under EU and US computer misuse legislations 'can have a chilling effect', with security researchers 'discentivise[d]' to find vulnerabilities. Taking stock of these significant, but substantially understudied, criminal law challenges that these security researchers face in the UK when working independently, without the vendors' prior authorisation, this paper proposes a new defence to the offences under the Computer Misuse Act, an innovative solution to be built in light of both the scientific literature on vulnerability research and the exemption proposals envisaged prior to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. This paper argues that a defence would allow security researchers, if prosecuted, to demonstrate that contrary to criminal hackers, they acted in the public interest and proportionally.

In England and Wales, as elsewhere, criminal law stands in sharp contrast to other systems of social control. Criminal offences and their related penalties are clearly distinguishable from civil wrongs and their associated (civil) sanctions. And because the term 'civil law' refers not only to the domain of torts, but also encompasses administrative law, criminal penalties are, in addition, distinguished from the administrative or regulatory sanctions. This 'distinction between criminal and civil justice has been such a basic feature of the common law'1that it shapes not only substantive law but also the organization of the courts into civil, criminal and sometimes administrative chambers or divisions. More importantly, the distinction between civil and criminal sanctions will lead to the application of different procedural rules: civil proceedings, used for the imposition of civil sanctions, are less stringent that their criminal counterpart applied when the offender faces a criminal sanction. This more gentle approach can be detected in both the burden and standard of proof.

Access to justice : the view from the law society / Andrew Caplen -- The meaning of access to justice / Tom Cornford -- Principles of access : comparing health and legal services / Albert Weale -- Europe to the rescue? EU law, the ECHR and legal aid / Steve Peers -- Access to justice in administrative law and administrative justice / Tom Mullen -- Immigration and access to justice : a critical analysis of recent restrictions / Robert Thomas -- The impact of austerity and structural reforms on the accessibility of tribunal justice / Stewart Wright -- Thirteen years of advice delivery in Islington : a case study / Lorna Reid -- Complexity, housing, and access to justice / Andrew Brookes and Caroline Hunter -- Access to justice in the Employment Tribunal : private disputes or public concerns? / Nicole Busby and Morag McDermont -- Renegotiating family justice / Mavis Maclean CBE -- Access to justice for young people : beyond the policies and politics of austerity / James Kenrick and Ellie Palmer -- A revolution in "lawyering"? : implications for welfare law of alternative business structures / Frank H Stephen -- CourtNav and pro bono in an age of austerity / Paul Yates -- The French approach to access to justice / Audrey Guinchard and Simon Wesley -- How Scotland has approached the challenge of austerity / Sarah O'Neill