Elizabeta Ivičević Karas received her PhD from the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and the University of Zagreb upon completing her doctoral dissertation titled “The Principle of Equality of Arms in Criminal Matters in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and in Comparative Law”. She passed the state bar exam in 2009. Currently, she is the leader of the scientific project “Reform of Croatian Economic Criminal Law” launched by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the development project “Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in Criminal Cases against the Republic of Croatia” launched by the University of Zagreb. In addition, she is an associate in the scientific project “Contemporary Criminal Procedure in the Republic of Croatia and Europe”, led by prof. Davor Krapac, PhD. As an associate, she also contributed to scientific projects “Criminal and Legal Aspects of the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union”, led by prof. Zlata Đurđević, PhD, and “Croatia and International Criminal Justice” led by the Chief Investigator, prof. Ivo Josipović, PhD. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Criminal Sciences and Practice and the Croatian Association of European Criminal Law. Furthermore, she has published two books and a number of scientific and professional papers.
Collection of Electronic (Digital) Evidence for Criminal Proceedings
The recent development of cybertechnology is also observed in the area of criminal law. On the one hand, we are now dealing with new offences in the area of cybercrime but, on the other hand, it is now possible to commit other criminal offences using computer systems. Moreover, cybertechnology has also made possible the storage of information on committed criminal offences in electronic (digital) form, which can lead to their detection and investigation.
The subject of this lecture is the collection of evidence in electronic (digital) form for the purpose of criminal proceedings. This activity, by its definition, differs from the preventive collection of computer data by the police and security services. Following the development of technology, the Criminal Procedure Act now provides for the use of data in electronic (digital) form as evidence and prescribes the manner of their collection. The implementation of related measures may be seen as a significant limitation of fundamental civil rights and freedoms, in particular the right to respect for one's private and family life, the right to freedom and secrecy of correspondence and other forms of communication, and the right to security and confidentiality of personal data.
The lecture will discuss the legal regulation of measures for the collection of electronic evidence. We will also consider the extent to which Croatian legislation complies with principles and recommendations contained in the Recommendation No. R(95)13 and fulfils convention obligations prescribed by the Convention on Cybercrime. In addition, we will compare the existing Croatian regulatory framework with the judiciary of the European Court of Human Rights with regard to the legality of electronic evidence collection and draw a comparison with solutions from other countries.