Cross-Border Data Forum Bannner
In his Atlantic Council issue brief US Surveillance on Trial in Europe: Will Transatlantic Digital Commerce Be Collateral Damage?, Propp summarizes the history, oral arguments, and possible outcomes of the European Court of Justice’s pending decisions on the validity of Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.  Propp notes that if the Court finds U.S. surveillance law is inconsistent with EU privacy laws, “transatlantic data transfer mechanisms relied upon by [Facebook], and thousands of other companies, may be invalidated.”  [...]
Prof. Peter Swire, Research Director of the Cross-Border Data Forum, recently published an opinion piece, first in French in Le Monde, and then in English in the European Law Blog, with the title “the US, China, and Case 311/18 on Standard Contractual Clauses.” The piece argues that the Court of Justice of the European Union’s decision in the Schrems II case could create a privacy absurdity: Trans-Atlantic data flows to the U.S. would be halted for fear of intrusive surveillance, [...]
The Department of Justice recently published a white paper, mounting a defense of the CLOUD Act and proposing to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs). However, one point repeatedly made by the DOJ in this paper (and other DOJ statements) in support of the Act is a matter of significant international debate.  The DOJ contends that the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention requires that parties to the Convention adopt legislation mirroring  Section 103 of the CLOUD Act. This section of the [...]
In her Yale Law Journal Online article Privacy and Security Across Borders, Daskal analyzes the impetus and results of three recent initiatives for law enforcement access to data: the U.S. Cloud Act; the EU E-Evidence proposal; and recent Australian legislation. The article highlights these initiatives’ promise and limits, and offers a way forward. Daskal explains that there is, on the one hand, the risk of governments demanding access to all information anywhere and everywhere, in ways that will almost certainly [...]