This book features eleven contributions on the fundamental principles of EEA law: legislative and judicial homogeneity, reciprocity, prosperity, priority, authority, loyalty, proportionality, equality, liability and sovereignty. Written by EFTA Court and national judges, high EFTA officials, private practitioners and scholars, it raises awareness of EEA law and provides insights for EEA and EU law practitioners and researchers. It focuses on the principles at the core of EEA law, some of which are common to EU and EEA law, while others have a specific place in EEA law and some ensure consistency between the EEA Agreement and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It is the only book to focus on the fundamental principles of EEA law.

This book compares and explains how the key European Union and European Economic Area legal principles of consistent interpretation are applied and developed by national courts in 12 different European Union and European Free Trade Association Member States.

The rapid development of information technology has exacerbated the need for robust personal data protection, the right to which is safeguarded by both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) instruments. Safeguarding this important right entails new and significant challenges as technological advances expand the frontiers of areas such as surveillance, communication interception and data storage. This handbook is designed to familiarise legal practitioners not specialised in data protection with this emerging area of the law. It provides an overview of the EU’s and the CoE’s applicable legal frameworks. It also explains key case law, summarising major rulings of both the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, it presents hypothetical scenarios that serve as practical illustrations of the diverse issues encountered in this ever-evolving field.

The effectiveness of European Community (EC) law and the way it is enforced in order to assure the judicial protection of individuals penetrating into the national legal orders is probably the most distinguishing feature of this unique legal order, in contrast with classic international law. By now, this principle and doctrine created by the European Court of Justice has become part of the European legal order with general acceptance in all EU countries. By contrast, the effectiveness of European Economic Area (EEA) law, and the way this other even more sui generis legal system provides comparable rights for European Free Trade Association (EFTA)-EEA citizens, is a silent revolution brought by the EFTA Court that has not been properly researched and exposed in the field of European law. This book summarizes and explains the basic principles governing the relationship between EEA law and the national legal systems, while searching for similarities and differences with EC law. The research questions explored in this collection include: How does EEA law achieve supremacy over national laws? Does EEA law have direct applicability? Can we speak, under some circumstances, of a sort of direct effect of EEA law? Can EEA law be defined as having "quasi" primacy and "quasi" direct effect? What about the indirect effect of EEA law (duty of consistent interpretation)? Last but not least, does the doctrine of State liability for breaches of EC law apply to EEA law? If so, what are the differences between the two legal orders? These questions are explored from a European perspective in order to help understand the effectiveness of European law, the special relationship between the Community/EEA legal orders with the national legal systems when the enforcement of European rights, and that the judicial protection of individuals are at stake.

The intertwinement of EC law and national law may create unforeseeability in situations where EC law invades the national cases. This study contributes to the contemporary discussion, which wrestles with questions such as: What have been the visions and objectives for European integration in the last decades? How to describe European Union as a political entity and a legal system? What is the relationship between legal certainty, rule of law, various general principles and human rights?

GDPR: Personal Data Protection in the European Union Mariusz Krzysztofek Personal data protection has become one of the central issues in any understanding of the current world system. In this connection, the European Union (EU) has created the most sophisticated regime currently in force with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679. Following the GDPR’s recent reform – the most extensive since the first EU laws in this area were adopted and implemented into the legal orders of the Member States – this book offers a comprehensive discussion of all principles of personal data processing, obligations of data controllers, and rights of data subjects, providing a thorough, up-to-date account of the legal and practical aspects of personal data protection in the EU. Coverage includes the recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgment on data transfers and new or updated data protection authorities’ guidelines in the EU Member States. Among the broad spectrum of aspects of the subject covered are the following: – right to privacy judgments of the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights; – scope of the GDPR and its key definitions, key principles of personal data processing; – legal bases for the processing of personal data; – direct and digital marketing, cookies, and online behavioural advertising; – processing of personal data of employees; – sensitive data and criminal records; – information obligation & privacy notices; – data subjects rights; – data controller, joint controllers, and processors; – data protection by design and by default, data security measures, risk-based approach, records of personal data processing activities, notification of a personal data breach to the supervisory authority and communication to the data subject, data protection impact assessment, codes of conduct and certification; – Data Protection Officer; – transfers of personal data to non-EU/EEA countries; and – privacy in the Internet and surveillance age. Because the global scale and evolution of information technologies have changed the data processing environment and brought new challenges, and because many non-EU jurisdictions have adopted equivalent regimes or largely analogous regulations, the book will be of great usefulness worldwide. Multinational corporations and their customers and contractors will benefit enormously from consulting and using this book, especially in conducting case law, guidelines and best practices formulated by European data protection authorities. For lawyers and academics researching or advising clients on this area, this book provides an indispensable source of practical guidance and information for many years to come.

Since its formation the European Union has expanded beyond all expectations, and this expansion seems set to continue as more countries seek accession and the scope of EU law expands, touching more and more aspects of its citizens' lives. The EU has never been stronger and yet it now appears to be reaching a crisis point, beset on all sides by conflict and challenges to its legitimacy. Nationalist sentiment is on the rise and the Eurozone crisis has had a deep and lasting impact. EU law, always controversial, continues to perplex, not least because it remains difficult to analyse. What is the EU? An international organization, or a federation? Should its legal concepts be measured against national standards, or another norm? The Oxford Handbook of European Union Law illuminates the richness and complexity of the debates surrounding the law and policies of the EU. Comprising eight sections, it examines how we are to conceptualize EU law; the architecture of EU law; making and administering EU law; the economic constitution and the citizen; regulation of the market place; economic, monetary, and fiscal union; the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice; and what lies beyond the regulatory state. Each chapter summarizes, analyses, and reflects on the state of play in a given area, and suggests how it is likely to develop in the foreseeable future. Written by an international team of leading commentators, this Oxford Handbook creates a vivid and provocative tapestry of the key issues shaping the laws of the European Union.

Analysis by tax scholars on the relations between European law and third countries in the field of direct taxation. It includes national reports from over 30 EU Member States and third countries, which were presented at a conference held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration on 13-15 October 2006. Among the areas addressed by this work are the following: The direct impact of article 56 EC Treaty (right of establishment) in the relations with third states; The indirect impact of the fundamental freedoms in the relations with third states; Fundamental freedoms in relation to EEA States under the EEA Agreement; Agreements between Switzerland and the European Union; The relations with other third states in the field of direct taxes; The impact of secondary EC law on the relations with third states; Article 307 EC Treaty (free movement of capital); and The treaty-making power of the European Union in the relations with third states.

This open access book examines whether a distinctly Nordic procedural or court culture exists and what the hallmarks of that culture are. Do Nordic courts and court proceedings share a distinct set of ideas and values that in combination constitute the core of a regional legal culture? How do Europeanisation, privatisation, diversification and digitisation influence courts and court proceedings in the Nordic countries? The book traces the genesis and formation of Nordic courts and justice systems to provide a richer comprehension of contemporary Nordic legal culture, and an understanding of the relationship between legal cultural stability and change. In answering these questions, the book provides models for conceptualising procedural culture. Nordic procedural culture has partly developed organically and is partly also the product of deliberate efforts to maintain a certain level of alignment between the Nordic countries. Studying Nordic cooperation enables us to gain a deeper understanding of current regional, European and global harmonisation processes within procedural law. The influx of supranational European law, increased use of alternative dispute resolution and growth in regulation density that produces a conflict between specialisation and coherence, have tangible impact on the role of courts in a democratic society, the form of court proceedings and court structures. This book examines whether and why some trends exert more tangible, or perhaps simply more perceptible, influence on procedural culture than others.