Klass v. Germany

[Editor’s Note: The casebook erroneously indicates the title of the case as European Court of Human Rights Klass and Others v. Germany.] The German legislature (defendant) passed legislation that regulated governmental surveillance. Under the legislation, certain conditions had to be met prior to engaging in surveillance. The conditions included the establishment of (1) facts indicating that someone planned to commit or was committing certain serious crimes, (2) the probable failure or considerable difficulty of other methods of investigation, and (3) limitations of surveillance to a specific person only. The legislation therefore prohibited general surveillance. Moreover, there were specific application procedures for authorizing surveillance. The legislation also placed a temporal limitation of three months on surveillance and required a new application to continue surveillance. Finally, the legislation provided for document destruction. Gerhard Klass and four other individuals (plaintiffs) claimed that the legislation violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 protected individuals’ rights to privacy but had exceptions for national security interests and the prevention of crime (among other things). The court concluded that the legislation did not violate Article 8 because the legislation was consistent with Article 8’s exceptions for national security and crime.