Protection Of Citizens' Privacy In The Context Of Counter-terrorism And Limitations

Each country has good willing to pursue a state in which the society is prosperous and the people lead peaceful and happy life.But things sometimes take their own courses in regardless of people's wish.The increasingly rampant terrorism has, to some extent and in some scale, damaged national security, impeded social development and impaired the interests of people's close concern.Particularly after 9.11, terrorism has been so widespread worldwide that it has brought severe and real damage and potential threaten to the world peace and security.The western countries led by the US have tighten up counter-measures against terrorism by adopting a number of steps and legislations, and what's more, have reached a wide range of counter-terrorism protocols and resolutions in regional and global diplomatic efforts. Since the concept of privacy right raised by the US experts in 1890, it has, over the past century, gradually become a kind of fundamental right of citizen which is accepted and protected by the international community and the legal framework of all countries.Due to the differences in the nature and focal points of the value and the interest behind them, so comes the tension and conflict between counter-terrorism endeavor and privacy right. The conflict, through the perspective of value, can be interpreted as a conflict of giving priority to securing national interest or respecting and protecting private life.How to coordinate the conflict between both sides is a problem which we can ignore.This article is focusing on principles and conditions applied to protect and restrict citizen's privacy right in the specific context of counter-terrori sm.This article is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 makes analysis on the jeopardy of terrorism and the significance of counter-terrorism endeavor, underlining the imperativeness of fighting against terrorism the today's world.Chapter 2 singles out the US and Germany, which are the representatives of anglo-american legal system and the continental legal system respectively and makes research in their legislation on preventing and fighting terrorism as well as their original legal framework for protecting privacy right, introducing the conflict between counter-terrorism measures and citizen's privacy right and elaborating the major view on the conflict in the international community and the attitude of the UN that takes both sides into account.Chapter 3, which is the central piece of this article, starts with thorough introduction on the concept and value of privacy right as well as the conflict between the three major counter-terrorism measures, that is, surveillance, searching and detain and the value of privacy right. Then it shifts the point to how to restrict the privacy right in a rational way and give it effective protection in the context of counter-terrorism by discussing the necessity of limiting and reducing of the protection of citizen's privacy right.Chapter 4 makes a discourse on the relationship between counter-terrorism and citizen's privacy right in our country.As well as the major reason for these kinds of relationship, it also raise the approach for securing the privacy right under anti-terrorism measure in our country.