Lecture 1
Data protection law is EU law, quasi-identical in all legal systems. Privacy and data
protection is the number one policy issue debated in the European Institutions. It replaced
agriculture as the main issue and a vast majority of jobs and opportunities opening up for
people like you.
There are 28 countries in the EU with the UK included and 47 European countries, members
of the Council of Europe, mainly based on conventions. The Council of Europe and
EC(ourt)HR are in Strasbourg
CJEU is in Luxembourg and the EU is very supranational. Regulations are the most
supranational cannonballs.
Both of them are big drivers of data protection law and for many privacy problems you can
go to both courts.
Legal instruments of the Council of Europe
Art. 8 European Convention on Human Rights (1950) is the right to respect for private and
family life, under which the right to protection against the collection and use of data falls. The
Convention was adopted by the Council of Europe. All CoE member states (47) are
internationally obliged to comply with the ECHR. To ensure this, the European Court of
Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg. All citizens could go here to question actions taken
by their MS and this had never been done before, as before the states were the guarantor of
fundamental rights. Now they still were, but their actions could be questioned before the
Court. We are accepting it outside the national borders, we are becoming cosmopolitan.
Privacy came quite late into the system, not all systems or countries incorporated it. There is
one judge from each member state in the ECtHR, so 47 judges.
The Council of Europe also adopted the Council of Europe Convention 108 for the protection
of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data. This one is the first and
the only legally binding international instrument in the field of data protection and it applies to
both the private and public sector. The Convention protects individuals from abuse of
collecting and processing personal data and regulates the transborder flow of personal data.
Individuals have the right to know what information is stored on them and to have it
corrected. Also, it guarantees on the collection and processing of sensitive data (race,
health, sexual life, criminal record). The Convention is open to non-members of the CoE,
also non-European countries. Art. 3 of Convention 108 concerns its scope.
Privacy touches our autonomy, our capacity to make choices, for example the right to have a
tattoo, is your privacy. Or for example, the way we are dressed, we don’t wear costumes
anymore. It’s not true that privacy is dead because of Facebook. If we look at the the amount
of choices we can make today, privacy is very much alive. FB does things that risk personal
data but that doesn’t kill the vast essence of privacy. Apple has been aware of privacy
problems very much. Since 1950, the court has recognized data protection as an aspect of
privacy and as a fundamental right.
The right to protection of personal data - privacy
Data protection law is EU law, quasi-identical in all legal systems. Privacy and data
protection is the number one policy issue debated in the European Institutions. It replaced
agriculture as the main issue and a vast majority of jobs and opportunities opening up for
people like you.
There are 28 countries in the EU with the UK included and 47 European countries, members
of the Council of Europe, mainly based on conventions. The Council of Europe and
EC(ourt)HR are in Strasbourg
CJEU is in Luxembourg and the EU is very supranational. Regulations are the most
supranational cannonballs.
Both of them are big drivers of data protection law and for many privacy problems you can
go to both courts.
Legal instruments of the Council of Europe
Art. 8 European Convention on Human Rights (1950) is the right to respect for private and
family life, under which the right to protection against the collection and use of data falls. The
Convention was adopted by the Council of Europe. All CoE member states (47) are
internationally obliged to comply with the ECHR. To ensure this, the European Court of
Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg. All citizens could go here to question actions taken
by their MS and this had never been done before, as before the states were the guarantor of
fundamental rights. Now they still were, but their actions could be questioned before the
Court. We are accepting it outside the national borders, we are becoming cosmopolitan.
Privacy came quite late into the system, not all systems or countries incorporated it. There is
one judge from each member state in the ECtHR, so 47 judges.
The Council of Europe also adopted the Council of Europe Convention 108 for the protection
of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data. This one is the first and
the only legally binding international instrument in the field of data protection and it applies to
both the private and public sector. The Convention protects individuals from abuse of
collecting and processing personal data and regulates the transborder flow of personal data.
Individuals have the right to know what information is stored on them and to have it
corrected. Also, it guarantees on the collection and processing of sensitive data (race,
health, sexual life, criminal record). The Convention is open to non-members of the CoE,
also non-European countries. Art. 3 of Convention 108 concerns its scope.
Privacy touches our autonomy, our capacity to make choices, for example the right to have a
tattoo, is your privacy. Or for example, the way we are dressed, we don’t wear costumes
anymore. It’s not true that privacy is dead because of Facebook. If we look at the the amount
of choices we can make today, privacy is very much alive. FB does things that risk personal
data but that doesn’t kill the vast essence of privacy. Apple has been aware of privacy
problems very much. Since 1950, the court has recognized data protection as an aspect of
privacy and as a fundamental right.
The right to protection of personal data - privacy
