Maryland Law Review Volume 38 | Issue 4 Article 7 Searches and Seizures Abroad in the Federal Courts Keith Raffel Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation Keith Raffel, Searches and Seizures Abroad in the Federal Courts, 38 Md. L. Rev. 689 (1979) Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol38/iss4/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maryland Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SEARCHES AND SEIZURES ABROAD IN THE FEDERAL COURTS* KEITH RAFFEL** The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution protects against unreasonable governmental invasions of privacy.1 In recent years federal courts have attempted to define the extraterritorial reach of that right. They have tried to decide when, how, and to whom the amendment applies in the context of a search 2 or seizure of evidence conducted abroad. The first section of this Article discusses foreign searches and seizures in which American agents participate. Courts agree that when there is sufficient federal participation in a foreign search the fourth amendment is applicable. They have had some difficulty, however, formulating standards for determining how much United States involvement is necessary for attribution of the search to the federal government. It will be argued that the tests formulated by most courts fail to safeguard constitutional rights. In addition, * © Copyright 1980 by Keith Raffel.