Global Inequality and the EU International Law Position on Cross-Border Data Flows

Abstract

Relevant data resources are critical for ai-supported decision-making. Thus, control over data, and how that moves across borders, has become a key point of international dispute. This article analyses the EU’s international legal positionings regarding cross-border data flows in the context of an increasingly fierce global battle over data resources. It also asks whether the EU approach to data government, which is reflected in its international positionings, can contribute to address the pressing problem of the unequal distribution of the gains of the data driven economy in and among states. The article argues that EU’s approach to data government is ridden with contradictions and that its centrepiece, the data protection framework, is best understood as a non-performative. This non-performativity, together with the determination to climb up the ladders of global digital value chains, makes the EU’s position on cross-border data flows ambiguous and downgrades its punch in international negotiations.