Name sought for new basic right/Neues Grundrecht – Name gesucht

This week the Federal Constitutional Court announced its decision on the Federal Trojan (Bundestrojaner), the plan of the German Minister of the Interior to secretly inspect computers nationwide. This related specifically to legislation of North-Rhine Westphalia, but made it clear that the same result would apply to federal legislation.

Press release of the court in German
Decision in German

It extends the general right of personality to create a new fundamental right: the ‘fundamental right to the guarantee of the confidentiality and integrity of information-technology systems’.

§ 5 Abs. 2 Nr. 11 Satz 1 Alt. 2 VSG, der den heimlichen Zugriff auf informationstechnische Systeme regelt (“Online-Durchsuchung”), verletzt das allgemeine Persönlichkeitsrecht in seiner besonderen Ausprägung als Grundrecht auf Gewährleistung der Vertraulichkeit und Integrität informationstechnischer Systeme und ist nichtig.

Section 5 (2) no. 11 sentence 1 alternative 2 of the Act on the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutzgesetz), which governs secret access to information-technology systems (known as the online search), infringes the general right of personality in the specific form of the fundamental right to the guarantee of confidentiality and integrity of information-technology systems and is void.

This doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so some German blawgs have been seeking a neater term for the new right. Telemedicus lists some:

Comments on DE:BUG:
Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung
Datenfrieden
Netzpolitik:
Grundrecht auf digitale Intimsphäre / Privatsphäre (someone objects that Intimsphäre is reminiscent of sanitary towels)
Recht auf Vernetzung
Statut über abhörsichere Informationstechnologie (StasI)
Recht auf digitale Unversehrtheit
IT-Grundrecht
virtuelle Menschenwürde
Grundrecht auf informationelle Integrität
and more
Malte Welding:
Recht auf Privatheit der Online- und Rechnernutzung (PORN)
More details on Telemedicus here and here

Here’s the Electronic Frontier Foundation in English, Spiegel Online in English.

One thought on “Name sought for new basic right/Neues Grundrecht – Name gesucht

  1. Well, if he’s in CH, maybe he’ll be using the BVC as a lead-up to a Non-Practising Barrister qualification because, as he knows perfectly well, 3/4 (not 3/10) Bar Students don’t find a pupillage within 5 years of completion of the BVC that leaves most finishers in debt to the tune of GBP 15k +. Plus the shelf-life is 6 years.

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