In his recent Observatoire FIC article Lost in the Cloud? Law Enforcement Cross-border Access to Data After the “Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data” (CLOUD) Act and E-Evidence, Professor Théodore Christakis of the University Grenoble Alpes provides a European view of the Cloud Act and a possible executive agreement between the U.S. and EU.  The article explains how the Microsoft Ireland case, the Cloud Act, and the proposed EU E-Evidence Regulation connect, and outlines potential obstacles including conflict between the U.S.’s preference to negotiate with individual Member States and the EU’s preference to negotiate on behalf of all Member States.

In their Lawfare article A Possible EU-US Agreement on Law Enforcement Access to Data?, Daskal and Swire explain the current negotiations between the EU and the U.S. concerning the Cloud Act and the proposed EU “E-Evidence” Regulation. The article discusses key U.S. and EU legal issues that would need to be addressed in any EU/U.S. agreement, notably including how competence is shared for relevant issues between the EU and its Member States.

In their Lawfare article Suggestions for Implementing the Cloud Act, Daskal and Swire set forth nine key issues the Justice Department faces regarding next steps for executive agreements under Section 5 of the Cloud Act, and propose four overarching goals they believe the Cloud Act legislation and agreements are meant to protect and promote, including:

In their IAPP article What the Cloud Act means for privacy pros, Daskal and Swire explain how the Cloud Act resolved the U.S. Supreme Court case between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding U.S. government access to emails stored abroad.  Daskal and Swire also briefly explain the Cloud Act’s new system of executive agreements, including the substantial list of privacy and human rights requirements to which these agreements are subject.