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ARTICLE 29 DATA PROTECTION WORKING PARTY

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The WP<strong>29</strong> notes that its previous criticism that the procedures in front of the FISC are not<br />

adversarial have only been mitigated to some extent by the introduction of the amici curiae<br />

who are tasked to “advance the protection of individual privacy and civil liberties”.<br />

Nevertheless the FISC does not provide effective judicial oversight on the targeting of non-<br />

U.S. persons. Some doubts also remain regarding the ability of the FISC to effectively assess<br />

the targeting and minimisation procedures, as was also stated by the PCLOB. 55<br />

3.5 Guarantee D - Effective remedies need to be available to the individual<br />

3.5.1 Judicial remedies<br />

3.5.1.1 Standing requirement<br />

The U.S. system relating to judicial remedies contains an important limit: the U.S.<br />

constitution requires an individual to demonstrate he has standing: “the requirement that<br />

plaintiffs have sustained or will sustain direct injury or harm and that this harm is redressable.<br />

At the Federal level, legal actions cannot be brought simply on the ground that an individual<br />

or group is displeased with a government action or law.” 56 Such requirement appears to be<br />

nullified by the lack of notification to individuals subjected to surveillance even after these<br />

measures have ended. The CJEU and the ECtHR have repeatedly stated that individuals have<br />

to be able to access administrative or judicial redress. The ECtHR has confirmed in its<br />

Zakharov decision that based on the jurisprudence anyone can go to court if they have a<br />

legitimate reason to suspect an interference of their fundamental rights. 57<br />

Furthermore, foreigners located outside the U.S. are not offered full constitutional protection<br />

in the U.S., following jurisprudence from the Supreme Court of the United States 58 . This is<br />

true in particular in relation to the Fourth Amendment, which protects U.S. citizens – but not<br />

non-U.S. persons – against unreasonable searches and seizures, and from which much of the<br />

U.S. right to privacy is derived. European citizens and other European persons living outside<br />

the USA are simply excluded from the protection of the Fourth Amendment. 59<br />

The limited application of the Judicial Redress Act (both in terms of substance as it excludes<br />

national security but also in relation to the persons who can rely upon the law), the many<br />

exemptions and the legal uncertainty regarding the agencies to which the Judicial Redress Act<br />

will apply, do not satisfy the requirement to offer an effective redress mechanism to all<br />

individuals concerned in national security intelligence surveillance cases.<br />

55 PCLOB Report on the Surveillance program operated pursuant of Section 702 FISA, p. 11<br />

56 https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/standing;<br />

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/standinghttps://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/standing; Clapper v. Amnesty International USA<br />

57 ECtHR, Zakharov, §171<br />

58 U.S. v Verdugo - Urquidez , p. 264-266<br />

59 Report of the EU Co-Chairs, section 2<br />

43

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