ChristineOtto's Journal

Course-related work:

• read news articles on the Radar ("As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets" and "House Passes Bill Preserving F.B.I. Surveillance Powers")
• listened to March 25 class

Reflection:

• It was highly interesting to read and hear about increased surveillance employed by many countries as a means to combat COVID-19. I had previously already done some research on it as I was considering making it the topic of my second paper. The justification of surveillance makes me feel uneasy even though I recognize the importance of curbing the transmission of the virus. Besides the question of proportionality between the pursued benefit of this increased surveillance and its risks/violations of civil liberties, I did not consider the risk of these measures outlasting the epidemic and opening the door to more invasive surveillance later.
• The 6th Amendment in the 21th century illustrates the problem of the government knowing too much about its citizens and of information asymmetries. The selection of an impartial jury seems to be compromised by this supreme knowledge of the state (due to modern technology, social media and surveillance). You emphasized the extraordinary significance of the selection of the jury in a criminal trial. As someone coming from a jurisdiction without jury trials I wonder whether this means that it would be fairer to abolish jury trials or how else the risk of impartiality of the jury could be minimized. You mentioned that in order to combat information asymmetries the defense has to be shown everything that the government knows. However, this does not solve the issue of grave infringements of privacy.

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