Legal Commentary

European Parliament To Regulate US Criminal Investigations?

By Stewart Baker

The most libertarian of the European Parliament?s parties, ALDE, has taken its past attacks on US antiterrorism practices to their logical extreme.  Now it is questioning the US subpoenas of Twitter in the Wikileaks investigation, and hinting that they somehow violate EU law:

ALDE members want to know why US investigators demanded the information when they hadn?t yet provided evidence that any crime has been committed.

?The lack of an identified illegal act and of a judicial enquiry in the US casts a shadow on the whole process of lifting the protection of citizens? privacy for the sake of national security through such subpoena orders,? Romanian MEP and ALDE member, Renate Weber, said in a statement.

?The EU should raise with the US authorities the fundamental issue of putting into question those persons who have not committed any crime,? she added.

I especially like the European complaint that there?s no judicial inquiry into Wikileaks under way.  Of course the US doesn?t conduct judicial inquiries into crimes; for historical reasons, we aren?t fond of what we?ve traditionally called inquisitorial criminal justice systems.

But what do you know; it turns out our objections are just more evidence that we don?t respect human rights.  Is it progress when Europeans stop comparing the US to Torquemada and start demanding that we take lessons from him?

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 13, 2011 (boomark / email).