Criminal liability for privacy violations in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights and Lithuanian case law

According to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. The High Contracting Parties shall secure the right to privacy within their jurisdiction and have positive obligations to ensure the respect and effectiveness of the protection of this right. Criminal law is one of the legal instruments (others are civil, administrative or ethical liabilities) to guarantee an adequate level of privacy protection in the national legal systems of The High Contracting Parties. The article analyses most serious violations of privacy, which are criminal offences according to the Lithuanian Penal Code. It should be noted that national law in this sphere is closely related to the particular State’s obligations under the Convention. Therefore, actual case law of Lithuanian courts was analysed in the light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The main aim of this article is to deepen the theoretical knowledge on the right of privacy in the context of criminal liability according to Lithuanian law. First of all, it should be stressed out, that, according to the European Court of Human Rights, private life is a broad concept incapable of exhaustive definition. Unsurprisingly, there is no precise definition of private life in Lithuanian legislation or case law. Therefore, national courts are relatively free to decide which aspects of relations between persons fall within the scope of privacy and which do not. Nevertheless, such freedom is not limitless, because Lithuanian courts are bound by the national and international legislation and case law. The article deals with the different aspects of privacy, which are related to a criminal liability. In Lithuania, the most common criminal offence related to privacy is illegal getting into home. Other privacy infringements, such as unlawful interception of correspondence, illegal collecting of information or person’s private life or illegal disclose of such information without consent are not very common in Lithuanian case-law. Lithuanian case law usually goes hand in hand with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights when interpreting different aspects of privacy, such as concepts of "home" or "correspondence". On the other hand, there are some doubts if the domestic law governing telephone tapping contains sufficient guarantees against abuse by the national authorities