Intelligence Act (France)

The French Intelligence Act of 24 July 2015 (French: loi relative au renseignement) is a statute passed by the French Parliament. The law creates a new chapter in the Code of Internal Security aimed at regulating the surveillance programs of French intelligence agencies, in particular those of the DGSI (domestic intelligence) and the DGSE (foreign intelligence).

The Intelligence Bill was introduced to the Parliament on 19 March 2015 by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and presented as the government's reaction to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. Despite widespread mobilization, the Bill was adopted with 438 votes in favor, 86 against and 42 abstentions at the National Assembly and 252 for, 67 against and 26 abstentions at the Senate. It was made into law on 24 July 2015.

Although framed by the government as a response to the Paris attacks of January 2015, the passage of the Intelligence Act was actually long in the making. The previous law providing a framework for the surveillance programs of French intelligence agencies was the Wiretapping Act of 1991, aimed at regulating telephone wiretaps. Many surveillance programs developed in the 2000s --especially to monitor Internet communications—were rolled out outside of any legal framework. As early as 2008, the French government's White Paper of Defense and National Security stressed that "intelligence activities do not have the benefit of a clear and sufficient legal framework", and said that "legislative adjustments" were necessary.

This section summarizes the main provisions of the Intelligence Act.

Through article L. 811-3, the Act extended the number of objectives that can justify extrajudicial surveillance. These include:

These surveillance powers can also be used by law enforcement agencies that are not part of the official "intelligence community" and whose combined staff is well over 45,000.

The existing oversight commission, the Commission nationale de contrôle des interceptions de sécurité, was replaced by a new oversight body called the "National Oversight Commission for Intelligence-Gathering Techniques" (Commission nationale de contrôle des techniques de renseignement, or CNCTR). It is composed of:

...
Wikipedia