Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
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Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#2I'd be interested to know if the EU law that the ECJ relied on differs from or goes further than the case law from the European Court of Human Rights that the UK is still a member of.
A ruling against mass data retention in the UK could help Privacy International in their on-going case against the government for its mass surveillance and use of "bulk personal datasets".
https://www.privacyinternational.org/long-read/4598/briefing...
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#3Our data retention laws get overturned all the time. Usually already by our constitutional courts. Sadly our politicians don’t care much and don’t get punished, so they just try it again and again and again and usually it’s in effect for a while before the courts give judgement.
I really can’t explain where Politikverdrossenheit (political apathy) comes from.
edit: The last sentence is sarcasm
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#4The orginal ECJ press release: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202...
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#5Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings?
I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#6In related news, the EUropean Data Protection supervisory authorities are complaining that their budget isn't being significantly increased even as the complaints they have to process have exploded in the recent years :
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#7Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings? I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
> I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
~80-90% depending on how you measure.
The judiciary of all countries is technically under the ECJ jurisdiction. People can sue their countries, and local court decisions can be appealed to the European court structure (ECJ/ECHR).
That was in fact one of the Brexit talking points, judiciary independence.
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#8Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings? I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
ECJ can only rule on EU laws. So as such they are not overturning any German laws, just stating the the German law is not in compliance with EU regulations. What that means in practice varies a lot from case to case, but in general the EU has the power to fine members that are in breach of EU regulations.
For practical reasons most EU countries want to be in compliance with EU law and will often follow ECJ recommendations and change their own laws if found to not be compliant. Also many EU countries have laws that essentially state that all their laws must comply with EU law.
The other option is to apply for an explicit opt out of certain a EU regulation that you feel is incompatible with your own laws.
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#9Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings? I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
> Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings?
Yes. See e.g.
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government_in_ireland/...
Re: Germany's blanket data retention law is illegal, EU top court says
#10Is the ECJ kind of a Supreme Court that can overturn member state laws and rulings? I had the impression member states were 100% sovereign within the EU...
The sovereign members of the EU have ratified treaties of European Union law themself.