Abstract: In 2015 - 2017 the French Republic was shaken by a series of terrorist attacks and hundreds of deaths. Of course, those crimes happened for many reasons including imperfection of the national security system. One of the steps towards improving the national security system was the expansion of competences of the French police and internal intelligence agencies to restrict a constitutional right to personal privacy in France. The methodological basis of the research implies the dialectical research method, systems analysis, formal law and comparative law methods, etc. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author describes a French model of restriction of rights to negotiation secrecy as well as particularities of control over activity performed by special services and law-enforcement agencies in this sphere. The author concludes that presently France practices two mechanisms of restriction of the right to personal privacy, administrative mechanism (interceptions administratives, interceptions de sécurité) and criminal procedure (interceptions judiciaires). Noteworthy that the procedure of administrative seizure and the mechanism of control over using technical intelligence equipment for administrative purposes create grounds for abuse of the law by French law-enforcement agencies and special services because they could interefere with negotiations or talks of any individual disregarding the fact whether there is a proof of his or her implication in a crime. 

Abstract: The research subject of the study is formation, development and legal regulation of intelligence community in France. The chronological framework of the study covers the historical period from 1994 to the present time. The first independent counterintelligence service in France was established in the last year of World War II, thus laying the foundation of the future intelligence community. During the period under consideration, various changes had happened to the internal policy of France and the international situation. Internal and external factors influenced the organization and activities of France’s intelligence community and the condition of national security. The research methodology of the study is based on the dialectical method, concrete historical approach, system analysis, formal legal and comparative legal methods. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the consideration of the transformations of the national security system of France from 1944 to the present day. The transition from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic had significantly changed the role of public authorities in the sphere of security provision. The reforms of the national security system of France which had taken place during 2007-2009, were based on the experience of American intelligence community. France’s counterintelligence agencies and political investigation service reforming was accompanied by the reduction of human, financial and technical resources. The author of the study concludes that these reforms, coupled with unfavorable external factors, had led to internal security weakening and serious drawbacks in combating terrorism.