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ECJ-DATA RETENTION JUDGMENT: European Court of Justice

09 April 2014

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See the full text: The Court of Justice declares the Data Retention Directive to be invalid (Press release, pdf) and Judgment (pdf): "It entails a wide-ranging and particularly serious interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data, without that interference being limited to what is strictly necessary" and Commission 2011: Evaluation report on the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC) (pdf) See: Digital Rights Ireland (link).

And see: The data retention judgment: The CJEU prohibits mass surveillance (EU Law Analysis, link):

"The Court’s judgment can be seen in the broader context of continued revelations about mass surveillance. Its reference to the retention of data by third States is a thinly-disguised allusion to the spying scandals emanating from the United States. It also responds, sotto voce, to the very great concerns of national constitutional courts about this Directive, discussed in detail in Chris Jones’ post on this issue.

More broadly, the CJEU has seized the chance to give an ‘iconic’ judgment on the protection of human rights in the EU legal order. Time will deal whether the Digital Rights judgment is seen as the EU’s equivalent of classic civil rights judgments of the US Supreme Court, on the desegregation of schools (Brown) or criminal suspects’ rights (Miranda). If the Charter ultimately contributes to the development of a ‘constitutional patriotism’ in the European Union, this judgment will be one of its foundations."

See also Chris Jones’ post: National legal challenges to the Data Retention Directive (link) and: What does the death of the EU data directive mean? (euobserver, link). And: Commission 2011 evaluation (pdf)

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