Dr Tom Hickman QC to give evidence to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

Dr Tom Hickman QC (Reader in Public Law at UCL Laws) will be giving evidence to the Bundesverfassungsgerict, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, on 14 January 2019 in a challenge to German laws governing the external surveillance of telecommunications by the German intelligence agencies.

The constitutional complaint challenges provisions relating to the carrying out of such foreign telecommunications intelligence, the cooperation with foreign intelligence services and the transfer of personal data thus obtained to domestic and foreign agencies, including provisions regarding further data processing and oversight by supervisory authorities.

Dr Hickman has been asked by the court to provide evidence to the court on the legal regime governing the authorisation and oversight of the UK intelligence agencies’ external telecommunications surveillance. He is not acting for any party. This is understood to be possibly the first occasion the German Constitutional Court has sought expert evidence on foreign law from a foreign legal expert and reflects both the difficulty and complexity of regulating modern surveillance regimes and the increasingly global manner that such issues have to be considered and tackled. 

Dr Hickman teaches telecommunications surveillance on his UCL Laws LLM module, Aspects of National Security law.

The full press release is available to read on the Bundesverfassungsgerict website.