Bringing the Panopticon Home: the UK joins the Schengen Information System

Summary:

Over two hundred years ago, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised the concept of the ‘Panopticon’: a prison designed so that a jailer could in principle watch any prisoner at any time. His theory was that the mere possibility of constant surveillance would induce good behaviour in prison inmates. In recent years, his idea for a panopticon has become a form of shorthand for describing developments of mass surveillance and social control.

The EU’s forays in this area began with the creation of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the 1990s. The SIS is a well-known EU-wide database containing enormous amounts of information used by policing, immigration and criminal law authorities.

Until now, the United Kingdom has not had any access to the SIS. But in February 2015, the EU Council finally approved the UK’s participation in the System, thereby linking the EU’s most iconic database with the intellectual home of the panopticon theory. What are the specific consequences and broader context of this decision?

• Primary Source

Commentary and Analysis

Statewatch: Statewatch Analysis: Bringing the Panopticon Home: the UK joins the Schengen Information System http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-263-uk-sis.pdf

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ESO Records

ESO: Background information: UK's block opt-out and partial re-opt-in to the ex-third pillar acquis http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-uks-block-opt-out-and-partial-re-opt-in-to-the-ex-third-pillar-acquis/

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