European Constitutional Courts Towards Data Retention Laws, edited by Marek Zubik, Jan Podkowik and Robert Rybski [Springer, Switzerland, 2021, 384pp, ISBN: 978-3-030-57188-7, £109.99 (h/bk), £59.99 (ebook)]

Abstract

[...]data retention can seriously interfere with privacy and rights of data protection, engaging the delicate balance between rights and freedoms, on the one hand, and security, on the other, which in turn impacts the very foundations of democracy. [...]data retention—and surveillance in general—engages a third ‘actor’ in the rights–security relationship, this being technology. After setting out the domestic legislation implementing the 2006 EU data retention directive in each State, the authors consider whether such national measures had already been the subject of any constitutional or supreme court decisions before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled the data retention directive invalid in 2014. [...]there is no doubt that this book provides a valuable overview of the evolution of European surveillance law (and related case law) in the first two decades after the 9/11 attacks.