The digital space is a powerful enabler for more inclusive democratic discourse, participation and policy-making. At the same time, digitisation comes with new challenges.
The abundance of data in the online space and powerful algorithm-based technologies pose serious risks to privacy, as well as to other interrelated human rights. The trans-border nature of the Internet itself presents significant legislative and judicial challenges for existing legal and institutional frameworks.
This book follows on from the June 2019 seminar paying tribute to the outstanding contribution of Lawrence Early, Jurisconsult of the European Court of Human Rights, as he was about to retire. The seminar brought together members of the judiciary and prominent legal practitioners and academics, as well as representatives of European institutions and non-governmental organisations. Speakers from different legal systems and jurisdictions exchanged views on the ways to address the complexity that protection of human rights online presents for the judiciary. The seminar focused on three major subjects: judicial protection of freedom of expression and the right to privacy in the digital environment; the concept of jurisdiction in the World Wide Web; and the implications of Big Data.
Given the breadth and significance of the issues arising in this complex, technical and fast-evolving area, the publication of these keynote contributions will undoubtedly inform further reflection on these matters by judges, legislators, experts and, perhaps most importantly, the general public.
Preface
SIR NICOLAS BRATZA QC, former President of the European Court of Human Rights
PART 1 — JUDICIAL PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT
Opening remarks
CHRISTOS GIAKOUMOPOULOS, Director General, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe
Same standards, different tools? The ECtHR and the protection and limitations of freedom of expression in the digital environment
DIRK VOORHOOF, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University and Legal Human Academy
The EU approach to the protection of rights in the digital environment: today and tomorrow – State obligations and responsibilities of private parties – GDPR rules on data protection, and what to expect from the upcoming ePrivacy regulation
CHRISTOPHER DOCKSEY, Honorary Director-General, European Data Protection Supervisor
Strasbourg or Luxembourg: a right to truth or suppressio veri?
JOHN F LARKIN QC, Attorney General for Northern Ireland
PART 2 — ISSUES OF JURISDICTION
Data protection and privacy questions in the digital age: whither jurisdiction and the ECHR?
SÍOFRA O’LEARY, Judge, European Court of Human Rights
Territoriality and the cross-border Internet: three exemplary challenges
BERTRAND DE LA CHAPELLE, Executive Director, Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network
Judicial safeguards against transnational surveillance and jurisdiction issues: the US point of view
FAIZA PATEL, Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center, New York University Law School
PART 3 — BIG DATA, BIG LEGAL QUESTIONS
Mass collection of data: failing typologies
NICO VAN EIJK, Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam
Big Data and the ECtHR: the acquisition, use and disposal of data by private Internet intermediaries and the case law of the Strasbourg Court
TIM EICKE, Judge, European Court of Human Rights
The role of courts in addressing the human rights implications of new and emerging technologies
LORNA MCGREGOR, Professor, University of Essex Law School
PART 4 — CONCLUDING WORDS
Summary of the issues discussed during the seminar: an aerial view
JUDGE ROBERT SPANO, Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights
Postface
ARTO KOSONEN, Agent of the government of Finland before the ECtHR 2001-16, co-Agent 1992-2000
MIA SPOLANDER, Deputy to the Permanent Representative of Finland to the Council of Europe
Finding and understanding the case law of the European Court of Human Rights
