The rights and the obligations of the undercovering agent in the undercover investigation

The status of the subject of the criminal process supposes the existence of certain rights and obligations, based on which this subject exercises a procedural function and participates in criminal procedural legal reports. The volume of rights and obligations must be expressly regulated by law in order to establish the limits of the functional attributions of the procedural subject and to prevent the abuses of the holders of these procedural rights and obligations. Therefore, we aimed to identify the rights and obligations that are acquired by the undercover agent within the disposal, organization and execution of the special investigative measure, taking the form of an undercover investigation.

The employment and conduct of undercover agents: Ethical challenges of legal solutions

The challenge of proving the crimes of the 21st century lies largely with the constant progress and improvement of the methods and ways of action of the perpetrators, which is especially characteristic of the most serious forms of crime that threaten the security of the state and all its citizens. Therefore, there is a need for specific state action both in the prevention of these crimes and in their suppression. This includes the use of special evidentiary actions provided by law. As the most complex one, Serbian legislation provides for the action of employing an undercover agent. The key feature of the undercover agent's actions is contained in Art. 185, para. 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prescribes that it is prohibited and punishable for an undercover agent to incite the commission of a criminal offense. However, other legislatures, such as the U.S. one, are familiar with the institute of the agent provocateur. The question that arises is related to ethics, but also the efficiency of various legal solutions, and the aim of this research is a type of scientific explanation of the relationship of both legal solutions with ethics in general, but also with numerous legal institutes that may be in danger in case of provocation. In conducting this research, in addition to analytical-synthetic and inductive-deductive methods, the statistical method also had an important role, as a short survey was conducted with 82 random respondents.

Entrapment and Terrorism on the Left

Previous literature has analyzed entrapment in post-9/11 jihadi terrorism cases, but has neglected similarly compelling entrapment claims among left-wing terrorism defendants. The Article bridges this gap through an in-depth analysis of the four post-9/11 left-wing terrorism cases involving an informant or undercover agent. Based on a review of these cases, the Article concludes that at least three of the four cases had strong entrapment claims, and that realistically, none of the defendants in the four cases would have committed any terrorist offense without government prompting. A comparative analysis of different types of domestic terrorism finds broad similarities in the characteristics of entrapment claims in jihadi, left-wing, and right-wing terrorism cases. However, jihadi entrapment cases are far more numerous, left-wing and jihadi entrapment claims are considerably stronger and more prevalent than right-wing claims, and left-wing terrorism cases feature certain informant tactics rarely if ever found in other cases. The Article situates the left-wing entrapment claims in the context of wider government attempts to target left-wing activists, and provides an initial analysis of the main factors leading to questionable sting operations in left-wing terrorism cases.

Settler Governmentality and Racializing Surveillance in Canada's North-West

Examining archival materials from the mid-1880s, this article details practices of racializing surveillance carried out in the North-West. I focus on the reports from an undercover agent from the Department of Indian Affairs named Peter Ballendine. Contributing to literature on Foucauldian interpretations of race and racialization, Ballendine’s correspondence reveals a campaign of covert surveillance and infiltration that imbued indigenous leaders with characteristics of dangerousness, abnormality, and deviance, translating indigenous demands for rights and dignity into threats to security of the budding Canadian settler state. Stressing that settler colonialism follows a structured logic of elimina- tion, I use the concept of settler governmentality to stress that the rationalities of colonial governance in the North-West approached indigeneity — especially expressions of counterconduct — as threats to the health, prosperity, and legit- imacy of settler society.