5 - Admissibility of Digital Evidence

Summary

Chapter 5 looks at dealing with digital or electronic evidence in criminal investigations and the complications that presents from a legal perspective. It focuses on the aspect of admissibility of digital evidence at the European level. It presents the main characteristics that make digital evidence so critical for the law of evidence, along with the digital forensics standards and guidelines that describe how to collect such data, developed by the most authoritative bodies at the international and European levels. Against this reconstruction, it highlights the scarce European statutory bases currently referring to the admissibility of evidence and, given their limits, moves to explore the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice. On such grounds, it supports the need for the EU to equip itself with common admissibility criteria in general, and with specific admissibility rules concerning forensic evidence (including digital data) in particular.