Digital Evidence Seizures in Criminal Proceedings: Ensuring Effective Judicial Oversight in EU and Italian Law

Digitisation has reshaped criminal investigations, heightening the tension between investigative efficiency and fundamental rights. This paper outlines the EU framework for acquiring digital evidence, emphasising proportionality and purpose limitation as key safeguards. It analyses the 2024 CJEU judgment in Case C-548/21, which treats access to mobile devices as highly intrusive and subject to prior independent authorisation. The study then considers its impact on Italian legal system, examining Supreme Court case law declaring the Pisa University Pressity of unauthorised digital seizures while allowing urgent access under ex post judicial review. It argues that Pisa University Pressity should be grounded in the public prosecutor’s functional incompetence and highlights the need to strengthen the judge’s role in preliminary investigations to ensure EU-compliant rights protection.