Surveillance Sovereignty: The Role of AI in Shaping Legal Power within German Data Protection Frameworks

Appearing in AI & Power Discourse Quarterly (ISSN 3080-9789), this essay analyzes how AI-driven surveillance technologies impact legal sovereignty under Germany’s data protection laws. It explores the tensions between privacy rights and state control, arguing that algorithmic monitoring creates a novel form of juridical power embedded in digital infrastructures beyond traditional democratic oversight. Artificial Intelligence is increasingly embedded within the legal-administrative infrastructure of the German state, particularly through its integration into data protection governance. This paper examines how automated decision-making systems restructure legal authority under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), shifting the locus of control away from traditional legal subjects and toward executable formalism. We argue that such systems do not merely support legal decisions but actively produce binding outcomes, often without interpretive mediation. By analyzing specific implementations of AI-supported data processing in German federal and state institutions, the article shows how legal sovereignty is being operationalized through non-subjective structures. This transformation challenges classical understandings of legal agency, due process, and democratic accountability.