Can public access to documents support the transparency of automated decision-making? The European Union law perspective

Author(s):  
Joanna Mazur

ABSTRACT Due to the concerns which are raised regarding the impact of automated decision-making (ADM) on transparency and their potential discriminatory character, it is worth examining the possibility of applying legal measures which could serve to increase transparency of ADM systems. The article explores the possibility to consider algorithms used in ADM systems as documents subjected to the right to access documents in European Union (EU) law. It is focused on contrasting and comparing the approach based on the right to access public documents developed by the Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) with the approach to the right to access public information as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The analysis shows discrepancies in the perspectives presented by these Courts which result in a limited scope of the right to access public documents in EU law. Pointing out these differences may provide a motivation to clarify the meaning of the right to access information in EU law, the CJEU’s approach remaining as for now incoherent. The article presents the arguments for and ways of bringing together the approaches of the CJEU and the ECtHR in the light of a decreasing level of transparency resulting from the use of ADM in the public sector. It shows that in order to ensure compliance with EU law, it is necessary to rethink the role which the right to access information plays in the human rights catalogue.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Mazur

The author verifies the hypothesis concerning the possibility of using algorithms – applied in automated decision making in public sector – as information which is subject to the law governing the right to access information or the right to access official documents in European law. She discusses problems caused by the approach to these laws in the European Union, as well as lack of conformity of the jurisprudence between the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Marija Daka

The paper presents some of the most relevant aspects of European nondiscrimination law established th rough European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights, looking also at the evolution of the norms and milestones of case-law on equal treatment within the two systems. The paper gives an overview of the non-discrimination concept as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union and by the European Court of Human Rights. We examine the similar elements but also give insight into conceptual differences between the two human rights regimes when dealing with equal treatment. The differences mainly stem from the more complex approach taken by EU law although, based on analysed norms, cases, and provisions, the aspects of equal treatment in EU law are largely consistent with the practice of the ECtHR. Lastly, the paper briefl y places the European non-discrimination law within the multi-layered human rights system, giving some food for thought for the future potential this concept brings.


Teisė ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 24-45
Author(s):  
Ingrida Danėlienė

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian] The article investigates the right to respect for family life, established by Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as applied and interpreted in conjunction with the right to marry and the right to found a family, laid down in Article 9 of the Charter. The standard of protection set by European Union law regarding these rights is identified by taking into account the standard of protection of the relevant rights established by the European Convention on Human Rights and the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Topical issues relating to the consolidation of these individual rights at the national level in the Republic of Lithuania are also addressed in the article. In doing so, an emphasis is laid on the content of the concepts of “family” and “family life” under supranational and national law.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 215-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro MANCANO

AbstractThis article analyses the interaction between the application of mutual recognition in criminal matters and the right to liberty. The main argument is that the current content of the right to liberty in EU law is unsuitable for mutual recognition procedures. As for the structure of this article, firstly, the main features of mutual recognition as a method of inter-state cooperation in criminal matters are outlined. Secondly, the approach of the European Union (especially the Court of Justice) to the right to liberty is clarified. Thirdly, four mutual recognition instruments are analysed in light of the right to liberty: namely, the Framework Decisions on the European Arrest Warrant; the Transfer of Prisoners; the Probation Measures; and the European Supervision Order (ESO). The assessment confirms that the higher level of automaticity in judicial cooperation introduced by mutual recognition requires a rethink of the existing understanding of the right to liberty in EU law.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-363
Author(s):  
Aistė Mickonytė

This article examines national regulations relating to the recognition of names in official documents by focusing on Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, having particular regard to the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the case of Runevič-Vardyn and Wardyn. It also assesses the potential impact that this and other cases before the ecj and the European Court of Human Rights may exert on national minorities. The recognition of names is not regulated in European Union law; thus, the eu member states may freely determine the usage of names in official documents, as the state language represents a constitutional value and part of the national identity of many eu member states. Therefore, only regulation of names that causes excessive interference with the exercise of freedom of movement or respect for private and family life is unlawful under eu law. This issue will also be discussed in light of Article 4(2) of the Treaty on the European Union, by which the ecj assesses these types of interference with the eu’s duty to respect the national identities of its member states.


2021 ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
Karolina BICZ

The article presents the issue of the free movement of persons in the European Union in the field of same-sex marriage rights, taking into account comparative elements. The research presents provisions of the European Union, as well as internal regulations in force in France, Ireland and Poland. The article discusses the approach to the analysed issue at the level of EU regulations and internal regulations of the examined Member States. Moreover, the interaction between EU and national regulations is an important research point. Besides the article shows case variants concerning the recognition of same-sex relationships due to the legal and ideological conditions in the analysed countries Also, the article analyses the impact and importance of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights for the studied topic. In addition, the study takes into consideration the impact of constitutional provisions on the legalization of homosexual couples in the analysed countries. The article is divided into parts covering the following issues: free movement of persons in the European Union, the right to family reunification of European Union citizens, relations between European Union law and the internal law of the Member States, recognition of same-sex marriages in France, Ireland and Poland, and summary. The opinions of A. Tryfonidou, H. Verschueren, P. Tulea and M. Bell were included in the study due to their importance to the research are.


Author(s):  
Dmytro Boichuk ◽  
Vitalii Hryhoriev

The article is devoted to the study of the legal nature of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as a source of law of the European Union. Within the scope of the doctrinal sources and the existing case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, the authors substantiate the logic of including existing the European Court of Human Rights case law in the EU law sources, citing arguments based on the EU law and the case law.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Piotr Świerczyński ◽  

The institutionalization of civil society in European Union law is a mechanism created as a result of various political, historical and cultural events. Civic society is the result of a specific historical process, but nevertheless it is constantly subjected to various changes, therefore it can be said that it is constantly being created “before our eyes”. Europe of citizens, understood as a postulate to identify the citizens of the European Union with European structures, is manifested, inter alia, in the institutions of European civil society shaped by these structures. These institutions include, for example, citizenship of the European Union and the rights constituting its constituent element, such as the right to petition the European Parliament, the right to lodge a complaint to the European Ombudsman, and the European Citizens’ Initiative. Therefore, these institutions of EU law are undoubtedly a legislative attempt to implement the idea of a European civil society. The citizens of the European Union are more and more willing to use from the institutions concerned, which to some extent proves their effectiveness. However, a hindrance the ubiquitous EU bureaucracy and far-reaching formalism, which results in, inter alia, declare many complaints, petitions and initiatives inadmissible. The assessment of the institutionalization of the European civil society, based on the analysis of the intensity of use and usefulness of the above-mentioned institutions by the citizens of the European Union, is therefore rather positive, although the European Union still has a long way to go to a state that could be considered satisfactory.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-206
Author(s):  
Herwig Verschueren

This article examines the extent to which EU law impacts on the relationship between the sub-national entities of a Member State where these sub-national entities have regulatory powers in the field of social protection. More specifically, it explores whether the criteria relied on in EU law for determining the scope of the circles of solidarity in the relationship between the Member States can also be applied in the context of the relations between the sub-national entities of regionalised Member States. It appears that EU law on the free movement of persons influences these matters, more specifically the European social security coordination system that determines to which national circle of solidarity a person migrating between Member States belongs. Indeed, in its judgment in the Flemish care insurance case, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) also applied these rules to some categories of persons in a cross-border situation between different regions of a single Member State. This article critically analyses this case law specifically in terms of respect for the regionalised identity of socially devolved Member States. It concludes that this kind of respect requires that in the context of the relations between sub-national entities of a regionalised Member State, the domestic constitutional rules determining the boundaries of circles of solidarity between these entities should, in all circumstances, have preference over the EU rules applicable between Member States.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1073-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Derlén ◽  
Johan Lindholm

AbstractThe case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is one of the most important sources of European Union law. However, case law's role in EU law is not uniform. By empirically studying how the Court uses its own case law as a source of law, we explore the correlation between, on the one hand, the characteristics of a CJEU case—type of action, actors involved, and area of law—and, on the other hand, the judgment's “embeddedness” in previous case law and value as a precedent in subsequent cases. Using this approach, we test, confirm, and debunk existing scholarship concerning the role of CJEU case law as a source of EU law. We offer the following conclusions: that CJEU case law cannot be treated as a single entity; that only a limited number of factors reliably affect a judgment's persuasive or precedential power; that the Court's use of its own case law as a source of law is particularly limited in successful infringement proceedings; that case law is particularly important in preliminary references—especially those concerning fundamental freedoms and competition law; and that initiating Member State and the number of observations affects the behavior of the Court.


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