Covert Investigations in Data-Saturated Environments: Toward a Normatively Constrained Framework = Regulating Covert Investigations In Data-Saturated Environments: Toward Normative Governance

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article examines how covert investigations are transformed in digitally mediated, data-saturated environments and explores the implications of this shift for the legal regulation of investigative practices. Moving beyond conventional doctrines, the study reconceptualizes covert investigation as an ontological and epistemic process, emphasizing how interaction, access, and informational conditions shape the production and interpretation of evidence.
The article argues that the traditional distinction between undercover operations and entrapment no longer serves as a stable analytical framework in contemporary investigative environments. As investigative access increasingly depends upon interaction and participation, the boundary between detecting criminal conduct and contributing to its evidentiary emergence becomes more contingent and context-dependent. This development generates forms of normative instability that challenge the adequacy of existing legal categories.
To address these challenges in data-saturated environments, the article develops a normatively constrained analytical framework that integrates ex ante orientation, process-based documentation, interactional accountability, and ex post reviewability. Rather than relying solely on categorical distinctions between permissible and impermissible conduct, it seeks to structure how investigative practices are evaluated, documented, and subjected to review.
The study concludes that the regulation of covert investigations must progressively shift from the control of discrete acts to the governance of investigative processes. In digitally mediated environments, the legitimacy of investigative practices depends not only on compliance with legal rules but also on the transparency, accountability, and reviewability of the processes through which evidentiary significance is produced and interpreted.