The ECBA has been approached by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) for input into its ongoing research on access to digital data in criminal investigations. This study focuses on law enforcement encryption workarounds, building on the High-Level Group’s work on access to data for effective law enforcement, and will inform EU and national debates, including the Commission’s Technology Roadmap on Encryption.
The project assesses the implications of digital forensics, remote access, compelling suspects to unlock devices, and obliging service providers to cooperate, particularly from a fundamental rights and criminal defence perspective. From October onwards, practitioners will be interviewed on challenges and good practices. The ECBA’s objective is to prepare a questionnaire to gather experiences from defence lawyers, compile a list of members to take part, and prepare them for the FRA’s interviews. This project ensures that the defence perspective is systematically included in policy debates on encryption and data retention.
Coordinators
Gwen Jansen – de Wolf is a criminal defence lawyer in Amsterdam with a strong focus on cases involving digital evidence and international dimensions. She regularly acts in complex proceedings where technology and cross-border cooperation intersect.
George Zlati: Partner at Zlati Ionescu Chiperi Law Firm, has 13+ years’ cybercrime expertise, a PhD in law, and trains judges and prosecutors as an external lecturer for the Romanian National Institute of Magistracy.