Search warrant
Definition
A judicial order authorising officers to enter and search a specified place and seize specified items. In most systems it must describe both the location and the items with particularity. A warrant without particularity is constitutionally defective in the US and procedurally invalid under PACE and the BNSS.
Related terms
- Chain of custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Exclusionary rule
- A rule that evidence obtained in violation of constitutional or statutory search-and-seizure requirements cannot be used at trial. Applied strictly and automatically...
- Exculpatory evidence
- Evidence that tends to clear a suspect of guilt. Investigators have a professional and, in many jurisdictions, a legal duty to document...
- Fruit of the poisonous tree
- A US doctrine extending the exclusionary rule: not only is unlawfully obtained evidence itself excluded, but any further evidence discovered as a...
- Lawful interception
- Court-authorised real-time capture of the content of communications in transit, such as telephone calls, emails, or instant messages. Requires a higher legal...
- Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT)
- A bilateral or multilateral treaty under which signatory states agree to assist each other in gathering evidence for criminal investigations. MLATs define...
- Plain-view doctrine
- A rule permitting an officer who is lawfully present in a location to seize evidence whose incriminating character is immediately apparent, without...
- Probable cause / reasonable grounds
- The standard of suspicion required before a warrant may issue or a warrantless search may occur. In US law, probable cause requires...
- Proportionality
- The legal principle, central to European human rights law and to many constitutional systems, that any interference with a fundamental right must...
Explained in these topics
- Legal and Ethical Foundations of Cyber InvestigationsA court order authorising law enforcement to search specified premises, devices, or data for evidence. Required in most common-law jurisdictions before accessi...
- Search, Seizure and the Forensic ExhibitA judicial order authorising officers to enter and search a specified place and seize specified items. In most systems it must describe both the location and t...