If you are an intelligence and security agency, you can only do something that is normally against the law if you have permission to do it. You need this permission, called an authorisation, to carry out the activity. This means you must follow the rules.

If you want someone in another country to do something for you, you cannot ask them to do it if it is against the law, unless you have an authorisation. You must have permission to ask someone else to do something that would be against the law if you did it yourself. This rule applies even if the person you are asking is in a different country.

If you have an authorisation, you can do something that would normally be against the law, even if other laws say you cannot do it. This is because the authorisation allows you to do it, so it is no longer against the law for you to do that specific thing. You can carry out the activity because you have the permission you need.