Strauss Center Director Adam Klein recently published an article in Lawfare on “Safe and Free: National-Security Surveillance and Safeguards Across Rule-of-Law States.” This article offers a brief overview of the new project launched by the Strauss Center called “Safe and Free: National Security Surveillance and the Rule of Law Across Democratic States.” This paper series examines the surveillance laws, institutions, and safeguards of 10 rule-of-law democracies.

Klein writes, “The U.S. and other rule-of-law democracies have passed major intelligence reforms since Snowden’s leaks. Germany adopted a statutory charter for its main foreign intelligence agency, the BND. Canada created a new oversight commission. The United Kingdom adopted a “double-lock” requiring for the first time that judges approve surveillance warrants. There are obvious reasons for citizens to care about their own governments’ intelligence-related policies and protections. After all, we have the most to fear from those who wield coercive power over us. But why study how other governments oversee their intelligence agencies? A new Strauss Center project, “Safe and Free: National Security Surveillance and the Rule of Law Across Democratic States,” aims to spur the comparative study of surveillance and to move that field beyond the narrow, often rivalrous transatlantic comparisons of the post-Snowden era.”

To read the article in it’s entirety, read it here. Our new project can be found at safeandfree.io.