The U.S. and Australia are currently negotiating an executive agreement under the U.S. CLOUD Act. The pending Australian ‘Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill 2020’ (the ‘Bill’) is designed – amongst other things – to bring Australian law in line with the U.S. CLOUD Act’s requirements and to provide a legal basis for an executive agreement to enter into effect. Such an executive agreement is anticipated to be similar to the one which has already been agreed between the [...]

The 2019 international agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States[1] on access to electronic evidence has attracted wide attention as a new tool of international assistance in criminal matters.[2]  Historically, countries have conducted such cooperation pursuant to mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs). The UK-US CLOUD Agreement, however, is the first international instrument putting in place a new mechanism providing that law enforcement authorities can request e-evidence directly from a cloud service provider, without going through MLAT procedures. [...]

Peter Swire and Justin Hemmings’ article Overcoming Constitutional Objections to the CLOUD Act assesses potential facial and as-applied constitutional challenges to the CLOUD Act under the Fourth Amendment. The authors argue that - without a strong fact pattern for plaintiffs - it would appear difficult to overturn the CLOUD Act on Fourth Amendment grounds. [...]