From Admissibility to Contestability: Structural Opacity, Encrypted-Platform Evidence, and the Limits of Adversarial Review
Janko Munjić · Journal of Criminology and Criminal Law · 1 June 2026
Abstract
Digital evidence from encrypted platforms such as EncroChat and Sky ECC is increasingly treated as formally admissible across multiple jurisdictions, yet core questions of provenance, integrity, and attribution remain structurally resistant to adversarial testing. Existing scholarship has mapped the doctrinal and cooperation routes through which such datasets enter domestic proceedings, but has not sufficiently operationalised the conditions under which they remain genuinely contestable once admitted.
Bibliographic record
- Author
- Janko Munjić
- Journal
- Journal of Criminology and Criminal Law
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 83–102
- Published
- 1 June 2026
- Publisher
- Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research
- ISSN
- 1820-2969, 2956-2198
- Language
- EN
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Full text
- Open access
Keywords
Research themes
- Digital Evidence and Contestability
How can courts preserve adversarial review when evidence is encrypted, algorithmically processed or structurally opaque?
- Human Rights and Procedural Safeguards
Under what procedural and human-rights conditions can technological evidence and AI-enabled tools be used in criminal justice?
Related publications
- Rethinking Human Rights Protection in the Age of AI: From Ex-Post Remedies to Rights-by-Design
Facta Universitatis, Series: Law and Politics, 2026
- AI-Driven Criminal Justice: The Sharp Edge of the Automated State
DigiCon DigiBook — Humanity in the Automated State
Cite this work
Munjić, J. (2026). From Admissibility to Contestability: Structural Opacity, Encrypted-Platform Evidence, and the Limits of Adversarial Review. Journal of Criminology and Criminal Law, 64(1), 83–102. https://doi.org/10.47152/rkkp.64.1.5