Criminal protection of privacy and recording of the conversation by one of the interlocutors

Abstract

Spanish Constitutional Court Judgement 114/1984 ruled, in accordance with the purpose of the request for constitutional protection of fundamental rights, that the recording by one of the interlocutors of a conversation does not violate the right to secrecy of communications laid down in article 18.3 SC. However, the majority of ordinary case law has extended this affirmation to the right to privacy provided in article 18.1 SC. This not only goes beyond the doctrine of the Constitutional Court, but also has serious material and procedural criminal consequences.