ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the commonly proposed defense for whistleblowing: it is often said that unauthorized disclosures may be justified, and thus warrant legal protection against retaliation, if such disclosures reveal information that is in the public interest. In practice, stating that unauthorized disclosures may be justified, means, according to the understanding of justification, that the act of whistleblowing remains criminal. The public interest defense would be a justification defense. The whistleblower need, therefore, not be a perfect Kantian agent who acts solely aus Pflicht in order to benefit from the public interest defense. For the defense to be fully available to the whistleblower, her disclosure must meet three conditions: the public interest condition, the ultimum remedium condition, and the minimize harm condition. The threshold condition has thus been met, as have the two procedural conditions, rendering Edward Snowden’s disclosures an eligible candidate for a complete defense under the public interest defense.
