The Government's new powers to force the handover of encryption keys could be vulnerable to a legal challenge under the Human Rights Act's guarantee to a fair trial.
People who refuse keys or passwords face up to five years in jail.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) was changed last autumn to allow police to force people to hand over passwords or keys to encrypted data.
Refusal to do so is a criminal offence carrying a penalty of two years in jail, or up to five years if the issue concerns national security.
One criminal law specialist has told technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio that the law could be challenged under the Human Rights Act, though he also warned that such a challenge could fail under legal tests set out by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
In the UK people under arrest have a right to remain silent, which could be used as a reason not to tell police a password.
That right is not absolute, though, and defendants would have to rely on the Human Rights Act-enshrined right to a fair trial, according to Jonathan Rogers, a criminal law academic at UCL in London.
"Article 6 [of the Human Rights Act] provides us all with the right to a fair trial both in civil and criminal proceedings, it gives various rights such as the right to a lawyer, the right to be able to understand the language, the right to be able to examine any witnesses against you," said Rogers.
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