City Research Online

Abstract

The invalidation of the Privacy Shield has shown how serious the CJEU was with regards to the protection of EU citizens’ data. It may not have created a legal vacuum, the GDPR offering different alternative possibilities including standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules. But it certainly has opened a phase of uncertainties and legal complexity which is not favourable to a smooth and continuous flow of data across the Atlantic. In this chapter we use soft law, defined as an act comprising a soft dimension with regard to either the obligation or the enforcement mechanism. We argued that the adequacy Decision of the Commission -a hard law act- suffers from a major weakness derived from the softness of the guarantees provided by the US government. Changes proposed resulting in the hardening of EU-US arrangements through a new Framework and with a Review Court, may dramatically evolve the partnership. Apart from the hardening of EU-US arrangements, the strengthening of US domestic rules on data protection could also contribute to the securing of transatlantic data flows through hard law legalisation line with the CJEU vision.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Relations on 31 July 2023, available online:https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Transatlantic-Relations/Fahey/p/book/9781032255347
Publisher Keywords:	EU-US; Transatlantic; Soft law; Privacy Shield; Governance
Subjects:	J Political Science > JK Political institutions (United States) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JZ International relations K Law > K Law (General)
Departments:	The City Law School > Academic Programmes

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