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In my former government career, I recall one of those transformational moments where you realize things are going to be much harder than you could ever imagine.  Ridiculously hard. The moment was in the fall of 2006 and involved meetings between European Union (EU) and United States (US) Government officials on the possibility of a … Continue reading Cross-Border Data Sharing – It Shouldn’t Be That Hard

Now that a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework has been announced, it’s a good time to orient ourselves. This is a critical milestone, but it is not the end of the journey. First, it’s important to ask, where are we now? An “agreement in principle” has been reached, but more vital work remains to be … Continue reading Privacy Across Borders: Where We Are and What Lies Ahead

By: Alex Joel, Senior Project Director and Shanzay Pervaiz, Senior Researcher, in consultation with Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Senior Advisor In a previous post, Laila Abdelaziz outlined the path to an adequacy decision after the European Commission (EC) and the United States announce an agreement in principle. Almost two years after the Court of Justice of the … Continue reading Challenging the New Privacy Shield Framework: All Paths Lead to the CJEU

With last Friday’s announcement of a much-awaited cross-border data privacy framework between the EU and U.S., global data flows are once again front and center in the data privacy world. This spring, I’m fortunate to be co-teaching a seminar with Professor Alex Joel at American University Washington College of Law on Privacy Across Borders. At … Continue reading Cross-Border Agreements

To understand how the Schrems II decision is affecting companies' operations, we analyzed annual 10-K reports.  SEC rules require that 10-Ks provide detailed information on certain key topics, including “Risk Factors.” According to the SEC, under this topic heading a company will provide information "about the most significant risks that apply to the company or to its securities." First, we searched for 10-K … Continue reading Is the Schrems II ruling one of the “most significant risks” facing U.S. companies?

In Redress: What is the problem?, Alex Joel and I highlighted the issues under the U.S. Constitution associated with meeting the EU’s “independence” and “binding authority” requirements for redress. The Supreme Court, in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 140 S. Ct. 2183 (2020), was confronted with determining the constitutionality of the for-cause … Continue reading Are Inferior Officers a Superior Solution to the EU Independence Challenge?

The views expressed in this product are the author’s and do not imply endorsement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or any other U.S. Government agency. As we witness Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the world’s response, I am reminded once again that what unites democracies is so much stronger than what … Continue reading We Are, in Essence, the Same

In an earlier blog post, Francesca Oliveira discussed the points made in the article she co-authored with Alex Joel on the redress problem which has been a major sticking point in efforts to preserve transatlantic data flows in the wake of the Schrems II ruling.  As explained in the article, the Court of Justice of … Continue reading FTC as a Model for Independence?

Recently, the Data Protection Conference of Germany requested Professor Stephen I. Vladeck to provide an expert opinion on the scope of FISA Section 702’s application. In particular, the Data Protection Conference seemed interested in FISA Section 702 having an extraterritorial application. In his testimony, Professor Vladek stated that if an EU company has a U.S. … Continue reading When Can a U.S. Court Exercise Jurisdiction Over a Non-U.S. Entity?

As we pointed out in September of last year, redress is a major sticking point in efforts to preserve transatlantic data flows in the wake of the Schrems II ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). For a country with a well-earned reputation for litigiousness, it may surprise people to learn … Continue reading The Path to Redress