Marin Bonačić was employed as a junior researcher at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, where he participated in the scientific research project “Croatia and International Criminal Justice”. Since March 2009, he has worked as a teaching assistant at the Department of Criminal Law with the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. He teaches criminal procedural law, misdemeanour law, and criminology within the integrated university level study programme, and the course Basics of Criminal and Misdemeanour Law offered by the Study Centre for Public Administration and Public Finance Law within the Faculty of Law. In 2010 and 2011 he acted as the local leader of the international project “Documenting the Past of Croatia: Establishment of a Digital Database on War Crimes”, sponsored by the Kingdom of The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs MATRA Programme and the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. As an associate, he 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 “Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in Criminal Cases against the Republic of Croatia” led by asst. prof. Elizabeta Ivičević Karas, PhD. He previously participated in the scientific project “Croatia and International Criminal Justice” led by prof. Ivo Josipović, PhD. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Criminal Sciences and Practice, the Croatian Association of European Criminal Law and l'Association Internationale de Droit penal (AIDP). In addition, he authored numerous professional papers and presentations, and collaborated on a book project (currently in the process of publication).
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.