INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND DATA PROTECTION IN SECURITY MATTERS. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EU AND THE US

Abstract

The present paper deals with the international law and European Union law limits to the free flows of information for security reasons and for law enforcement reasons, deriving from both data protection and human rights legal instruments. Thus, the first step will be drawing up the international framework (if any) for data protection and data transfers. The EU framework will then be analyzed, taking into consideration the most relevant European data protection acts, and, subsequently, compared with data protection rules in the United States. Finally, given the absence of a comprehensive international framework, the bilateral conventional solutions will be considered. To this extent, the most important data transfer agreements between the European Union and the United Statesare analyzed, enlightening the data protection issues arising from such an analysis