Lecture by: Oreste Pollicino

Discussants: Mariavittoria Catanzariti and Stefan Alexander Luca

The lecture explores the factors which led the CJEU to reshape the legal framework of the (judicial) application of EU data protection law.

Two are the relevant factors to the new judicial activism. The first one relates to the recognition of the EU Charter of Fundamental Right as primary law with the same legal value as Treaties. The CJEU competence in fundamental rights matters has fostered an unprecedented wave of judicial activism in the field of data protection.The second factor consists of the direct or indirect relevance of the trans-border use of digital technologies in the law of the Internet that may activate the exercise of fundamental rights beyond the domestic and European borders.In reaction to the new challenges deriving from digitalization, both the CJEU and the ECHR have increasingly developed – from different perspectives – the right to ‘digital’ privacy. The presentation will take into account also the existence of different legal regimes which are centered on the constitutional balance of digital rights and other competing rights.