The Vengeful State: Responses by democratic governments to unauthorized public disclosure of national security information

• In Event: Comparative and International Perspectives on State and Political Crimes

Abstract

This paper compares responses of democratic states to the unauthorised public disclosure of national security information. It is based on prominent cases occurring under five different liberal democratic regimes: France, Britain, Switzerland, Israel and the United States. Each case considers the disclosure in question, whether the information revealed was indicative of illegality on the part of the state, and the media through which it was disclosed. It then analyses the mobilization of law by the aggrieved government, including whether the state itself violated the law in the course of its response. Next, it looks at longer term legal and policy consequences of the matter in question. The concluding section addresses two fundamental questions: Was the information appropriately classified in the first place? What harm to national security resulted from the disclosures?

Author

• Peter Grabosky, Australian National University