Lawfare

Has the Time for an EU-U.S. Agreement on E-Evidence Come and Gone?

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Lawfare

U.S. Attorney General Garland and other U.S. officials are joined by EU Commissioner Didier Reynders and others (Department of Justice photo; https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/joint-us-eu-statement-following-us-eu-justice-and-home-affairs-ministerial)

In 2018, the United States and the European Union each set out to reinvent the creaky international system for making electronic evidence stored in one jurisdiction available to law enforcement in another. Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Atlantic cheered. Four years later, progress toward this goal has been incremental at best. A meeting in Washington this week between the EU’s commissioner for justice, Didier Reynders, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is unlikely to advance prospects for a transatlantic e-evidence agreement. Frustrated investigators and prosecutors are looking for other tools. Has the time for an EU-U.S. agreement on e-evidence come and gone? 

Has the Time for an EU-U.S. Agreement on E-Evidence Come and Gone?