The US and British governments have begun negotiations this month on an agreement that would enable the British government to serve wiretap orders directly on US communication firms for live intercepts in criminal and national security investigations involving its own citizens. In the Washington Post article titled 'The British want to come to America — with wiretap orders and search warrants', Professor Eric King, a Visiting Lecturer in Surveillance Law at QMUL, said: “What it means is they’re going to allow a country that doesn’t require independent judicial authorization before getting a wiretap to continue that practice, which seems to be a pretty fundamental constitutional protection in the United States.”