Judical control of legality of work of security services in Serbia

Abstract

The principle of each contemporary democratic society implies division of power into legislative, executive and judicial. If there is no division into these three branches of power and if preconditions have not been satisfied for judicial power to be independent from the legislative and executive power, that inevitably leads to disrespect of human rights and freedoms, violation of political freedoms and absence of the rule of law. Independence of judiciary is the principal element for realization of a constitutional parliamentary state, primarily as the guarantor of protection of human, political and minority rights. The usual practice is that a security service in a democratic state has to ask for a court order if it wants to perform monitoring and other investigative procedures against a person or a group of persons. The order is usually pretty concrete concerning particulars with regard to the type of monitoring to be approved, against whom and for how long, as well as what is the legal basis for implementation. Courts and judicial bodies have a direct impact on protection of rights of individuals and on implementation of a democratic control over governmental institutions, especially over institutions of executive power, which include security services. This paper examines and analyzes the ways judicial authorities in the Republic of Serbia perform control of respect of constitutionality and legality in implementation of special procedures and measures and special measures, i.e., special evidence gathering actions, which security services apply for protecting of national security.