The Fundamental Right to Data Protection: Normative Value in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Surveillance(Modern Studies in European Law)

About the Book

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, data protection has been elevated to the status of a fundamental right in the European Union and is now enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights alongside the right to privacy. This timely book investigates the normative significance of data protection as a fundamental right in the EU. The first part of the book examines the scope, the content and the capabilities of data protection as a fundamental right to resolve problems and to provide for an effective protection. It discusses the current approaches to this right in the legal scholarship and the case-law and identifies the limitations that prevent it from having an added value of its own. It suggests a theory of data protection that reconstructs the understanding of this right and could guide courts and legislators on data protection issues. The second part of the book goes on to empirically test the reconstructed right to data protection in four case-studies of counter-terrorism surveillance: communications metadata, travel data, financial data and Internet data surveillance. The book will be of interest to academics, students, policy-makers and practitioners in EU law, privacy, data protection, counter-terrorism and human rights law.

Table of Contents:

Part I: The Theoretical Framework
1. Data Protection as a Fundamental Right
2. The Judicial Assessment of the Right to Data Protection

Part II: Case Studies
3. Metadata Surveillance
4. Travel Data Surveillance
5. Financial Data Surveillance
6. Internet Data Surveillance
7. Conclusions

About the Author :
Maria Tzanou is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Keele.

Review :
Tzanou’s work makes visible the cognitive blind spot that defines the way we tend to assemble our knowledge and understanding of the role of data protection in the age of counter-terrorism surveillance. This book condenses wonderfully what judges and policymakers sometimes do when they fail to recognise that the answer to many data processing problems encountered in counter-terrorism situations can be found in data protection rules and principles. This book can be recommended without reservation as it offers new food for thought through its innovative approach to the concept of the fundamental right to data protection and also illustrates the importance of the fundamental right very vividly by means of up-to-the-minute examples. (Translated from the original German) [T]he book represents an exhaustive contribution to the field in affirming the reconstruction of the right to data protection as a fundamental and autonomous right in line with the evolution of normative and judicial practice, and correctly evaluates the counter-terrorism measures in the ambit of the guarantees underlying such right. In substance, it is a book that highlights the significance of the right to data protection in today’s globalised world with the goal that it be adequately respected in the fight against terrorism. This is an extremely well-researched and documented book, not only in terms of legal scholarship but also in terms of case law. In particular it manages to assemble and analyse some of the most important decisions the CJEU has adopted regarding data protection and surveillance... Written in a very clear style and structured in a way that makes it easy to understand the argument being presented, it is also very effective in reaching an audience interested in data protection law and surveillance studies. This is particularly relevant, since one of the main issues it raises is very unlikely to disappear in the near future.