Courses

In 2016, the world of data protection was shaken by the adoption of the GDPR, the European General Data Protection Regulation. Although many aspects of this regulation already existed in European Law, the GDPR was nevertheless seen as ground-braking for a number of reasons. Among those, the fact that it created a unified data protection Law applicable to 500 million people; the fact that the sanctions for violating EU data protection law were considerably upscaled ; and that if some conditions apply, this regulation is to be respected by data controllers located outside of Europe. Those features made the GDPR very influential in the world; but it has also been criticized for its complexity and absence of compromise on certain questions, the complaint being that it is not business friendly. On top of that, the fact that the European Court of Justice struck down twice the adequacy decision which allowed the free transfer of personal data located in Europe to the US has created numerous problems for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. In this light, understanding the basics of the GDPR is useful not only to grasp some fundamental notions about data protection, but also the context of current major issues for EU and US businesses in relation to data protection. This class will therefore introduce students to the basic concepts and principles of the GDPR and reflect on the current challenges the GDPR is facing, most notably the question of data transfers between the US and Europe.