Research Guide to European Data Protection Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven S. McCarty-Snead ◽  
Anne Titus Hilby

“Data protection” law refers to the legal scheme governing the collection, holding, processing, disclosure, and transfer of individuals’ personal information online … and off. Data protection is a fast-changing and increasingly important supranational, international (including transnational), and national topic that touches on a numerous core political concerns, including the freedom of expression, public safety, and international trade. One recent study found that “data privacy laws are spreading globally, and their number and geographical diversity accelerating since 2000.”

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddy Leerssen

David Erdos’ new book, European Data Protection, Regulation, Journalism and Traditional Publishers, is a rich, meticulous contribution to the study of data protection law and its complex interactions with the media and with freedom of expression and information. In a time when new-fangled tech giants and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications suck up most of the available attention, the role of more traditional actors remains nonetheless pivotal, and risks being underappreciated. Thankfully, Erdos’ new book does a remarkably comprehensive job of mapping the state of play in this area, critiquing its ongoing challenges and uncertainties, and charting a way forward. It marks a first, promising entry in the new Oxford University Press series on Data Protection and Privacy Law.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 31-34
Author(s):  
Nani Jansen Reventlow

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes important transparency and accountability requirements on different actors who process personal data. This is great news for the protection of individual data privacy. However, given that “personal information and human stories are the raw material of journalism,” what does the GDPR mean for freedom of expression and especially for journalistic activity? This essay argues that, although EU states seem to have taken their data protection obligations under the GDPR seriously, efforts to balance this against the right to freedom of expression have been more uneven. The essay concludes that it is of key importance to ensure that the GDPR's safeguards for data privacy do not compromise a free press.


Author(s):  
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson

This chapter observes how it may be inappropriate to apply a single jurisdictional threshold to diverse instruments such as data privacy laws. In the light of this observation, a proposal is outlined for a ‘layered approach’ under which the substantive law rules of such instruments are broken up into different layers, with different jurisdictional thresholds applied to each such layer. This layered approach is discussed primarily as a technique to be utilized in legal drafting, but it may also be applied in the interpretation and application of legal rules. Article 3 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which determines that regulation’s scope of application in a territorial sense, provides a particularly useful lens through which to approach this topic and, thus, the discussion is largely centred around that Article.


Author(s):  
David Erdos

This book explores the interface between European data protection and the freedom of expression activities of traditional journalism, professional artists, and both academic and non-academic writers from both an empirical and normative perspective. It draws on an exhaustive examination of both historical and contemporary public domain material and a comprehensive questionnaire of European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs). Empirically it is found that, notwithstanding an often confusing statutory landscape, DPAs have sought to develop an approach to regulating the journalistic media based on contextual rights balancing. However, they have struggled to secure a clear and specified criterion of strictness as regards standard-setting or a consistent and reliable approach to enforcement. DPAs have appeared even more confused as regards other traditional publishers, largely abstaining from regulating most professional artists and writers but attempting to subject all academic disciplines to onerous statutory restrictions established for medical, scientific, and related research. From these findings, it is argued that balancing contextual rights has value and should be both generalized across all traditional publishers and systematically and sensitively developed through structured and robust co-regulation. Such co-regulation should adopt the new code of conduct and monitoring provisions included in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a broad guideline. DPAs should accord strong deference to any codes and monitoring bodies which verifiably meet the accredited criteria but must engage more proactively when these are absent. In any case, DPAs should also intervene directly as regards particularly serious or systematic issues and have an increasingly important role in ensuring a joined-up approach between traditional publishing and new media activity.


Author(s):  
Francisco García Martínez

The creation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) constituted an enormous advance in data privacy, empowering the online consumers, who were doomed to the complete loss of control of their personal information. Although it may first seem that it only affects companies within the European Union, the regulation clearly states that every company who has businesses in the EU must be compliant with the GDPR. Other non-EU countries, like the United States, have seen the benefits of the GDPR and are already developing their own privacy laws. In this article, the most important updates introduced by the GDPR concerning US corporations will be discussed, as well as how American companies can become compliant with the regulation. Besides, a comparison between the GDPR and the state of art of privacy in the US will be presented, highlighting similarities and disparities at the national level and in states of particular interest.


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