The expression "in accordance with the law" in paragraph 2 of Article 8 means firstly that any
interference must have some basis in the law of the country concerned. However, over and above
compliance with domestic law, it also requires that domestic law itself be compatible with the rule of
law. It thus implies that there must be a measure of legal protection in domestic law against arbitrary
interferences by public authorities with the rights safeguarded by paragraph 1.
The Court accepted the Government's contention that the requirements of the Convention cannot be
exactly the same in the special context of interception of communications for the purposes of police
investigations as they are in other contexts. Thus, the "law" does not have to be such that an
individual should be enabled to foresee when his communications are likely to be intercepted so that
he can adapt his conduct accordingly. Nevertheless, the law must be sufficiently clear in its terms to
give citizens in general an adequate indication as to the circumstances in which and the conditions
on which public authorities are empowered to resort to this secret and potentially dangerous
interference with the right to respect for private life and correspondence.