Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Data protection – European Union countries'

Defence date: 06 July 2021
Examining Board: Professor Giorgio Monti (Tilburg University); Professor Michal Gal (University of Haifa); Professor Orla Lynskey (London School of Economics); Professor Peter Drahos (European University Institute)
This thesis addresses the problem of individuals’ lack of control over personal data in the digital world. It sheds light on market and regulatory failures that lie behind the status quo and proposes a framework to improve regulatory responses. The two regulatory regimes that are at the core of this thesis are EU data protection regulation, which protects individuals’ fundamental rights over data, and EU competition law, which safeguards the sound functioning of the market and consumers’ economic interests. Despite the existence of these two regulatory regimes, individuals do not have sufficient control over personal data collected by digital firms, whose control over large datasets is a factor contributing to market monopolisation. The thesis argues that one reason for the shortcomings of today’s regulatory framework is that the market failure is composed of a combination of factors, which are currently addressed by the different regimes relatively independently. This dichotomy hinders the development of an effective strategy to tackle the market failure in its entirety. The approach taken in this thesis is that by integrating the two regimes, it might be possible to close the gaps deriving from a narrow perception of their regulatory spaces. Hence, the thesis formulates a holistic approach, encompassing data protection regulation and competition law, designed to increase the effectiveness of the regulatory framework as a whole. Different dimensions of the regimes’ interrelation are analysed, to uncover new ways to harness their complementarity and minimise their inconsistencies and overlaps. The thesis looks at how the regimes can incorporate elements from each other to inform their policies and application of their rules, as well as developing a complementary enforcement strategy. The holistic framework ultimately allows both regimes to better tailor their regulatory responses to the functioning of the digital market and take account of the diverse elements that constitute the market failure they seek to correct.

The object of study of this research is the right to Personal Data Protection within the framework of the EU-US E-Market legal regime. Its characteristics, as well as the features of the main actors participating into that E-Market, make possible to consider it as a proper basis for the development of an International/Universal legal system treaty-based. The Actors and Relations included by the research are the duty bearers of Personal Data Protection law, both State and Private Entity Activities. Nonetheless, the Informal Power Relation between State and Private organization is also taken into account since there are some informal agreements or coordination between State Agencies and IT Corporations on data sharing and processing. The time frame of the research is 2001-2016 (after the terrorist’s attack in USA on 9/11 until the most recent reform of the EU-US E-Market regime in 2016). The research’s point of departure is International Human Rights Law, as far as it recognizes a general framework to support and regulate personal data protection on cyberspace realm. Nonetheless, the distinctive characters of cyberspace demand a well designed, at universal level, specific regulation and mechanisms to guarantee such fundamental rights relating personal data protection internationally. Accordingly, Research Hypothesis is represented in double issues: first, effective personal data protection on cyberspace needs the establishment of an International/Universal legal system treaty-based; second, EU Regime on personal data protection in cyberspace and current EU-US agreements on this issue can be used as a model for initiating such International/Universal Treaty. The structure of the thesis is divided into six chapters, being Chapter 1 the research design and Chapter 6 the conclusions and recommendations coming from the research. So, Chapter 2 analyzes Universal Legal Instruments, EU Laws and EU-US Agreements in force before 5th June 2013 (critical turning point date because of the revelations of Mass Electronic Surveillance presented then on World Wide Web). Within this legal framework, Chapter 3 studies hard cases about personal data protection in US domestic courts and in the Court of Justice of European Union, in order to search for precise interpretation of the right to personal data protection in cyberspace that, later, had to be taken into account by US and EU in their further legal reforms. Chapter 4 analyses and reviews the legal instruments enacted through the reform of the EU personal data protection regime and the new EU-US Bilateral Agreements currently in force. Finally, Chapter 5 evaluates the possibility to initiate an International Treaty for regulating data using across borders. Considering the initiatives of either international governmental organizations or non-governmental movements in the field, the chapter shows how a set of principles can be extracted from the reforms in the EU and EU-US regime and how they can be used to create an International Regime for protection of personal data in cyberspace.
L'objecte d'estudi d'aquesta recerca és el dret a la protecció de les dades personals en el marc del règim jurídic aplicable al mercat electrònic UE-Estats Units. Les seves característiques, així com les dels principals actors que intervenen en aquest mercat, permeten considerar aquest règim jurídic com una base adequada per al possible desenvolupament d'un tractat internacional de vocació universal sobre protecció de dades personals en el ciberespai. Els actors i les relacions incloses en la recerca són els responsables de les obligacions jurídiques en matèria de protecció de dades personals, tant entitats públiques com a privades. Malgrat això, també es tenen en compte les ‘relacions informals de poder’ entre Estat i organitzacions privades, donada l'existència d'acords informals o coordinació entre tots dos per a l'intercanvi i processament de dades. El marc temporal de la recerca és 2001-2016 (després dels atemptats del 9/11 a Estats Units i fins a la més recent reforma del règim UE-EUA culminada en 2016). El punt de partida d’aquesta recerca és el Dret Internacional dels Drets Humans, que conté el marc general per al suport i regulació de la protecció de dades personals en el ciberespai. Ara bé, els caràcters distintius del ciberespai exigeixen una regulació i mecanismes específics ben dissenyats, a nivell universal, per garantir internacionalment els esmentats drets fonamentals relatius a la protecció de dades personals. Conseqüentment, la hipòtesi de recerca es formula de la següent manera: en primer lloc, la protecció eficaç de les dades personals en el ciberespai necessita l'establiment d'un sistema jurídic internacional d'abast universal basat en tractats; en segon lloc, el règim de la UE sobre protecció de dades personals en el ciberespai i els actuals acords UE- Estats Units sobre aquesta qüestió poden utilitzar-se com a model per a l'elaboració d'aquest Tractat Internacional. L'estructura de la tesi es divideix en sis capítols, essent el Capítol 1 el disseny de la recerca i el Capítol 6 les conclusions i recomanacions que es desprenen de la recerca. Així, el Capítol 2 analitza els Instruments Jurídics Universals, les normes de la UE i els acords UE-EUA vigents abans 5 de juny de 2013 (data crítica a causa de les revelacions sobre Vigilància Electrònica en massa, presentades mundialment aquest dia). Dins d'aquest marc jurídic, el Capítol 3 realitza una anàlisi jurisprudencial i analitza una selecció de casos sobre protecció de dades personals suscitades davant els tribunals interns d'Estats Units i davant el Tribunal de Justícia de la Unió Europea, amb l'objectiu d'identificar la interpretació precisa del dret a la protecció de dades personals en el ciberespai que, posteriorment, ha hagut de tenir en compte la reforma normativa a Estats Units i en la UE sobre aquesta matèria. El Capítol 4 analitza i revisa els instruments jurídics promulgats en virtut de la reforma del règim de protecció de dades personals de la UE i els nous acords bilaterals entre la UE i els Estats Units actualment en vigor. Finalment, el Capítol 5 avalua la possibilitat d'elaborar un Tractat Internacional d'abast universal que garanteixi el dret a la protecció de dades personals que ‘circulen’ pel ciberespai. Tenint en compte les iniciatives formulades per organitzacions governamentals internacionals i pels moviments no governamentals especialitzats, el capítol mostra com es poden extreure un conjunt de principis de les reformes de la UE i del règim aplicable a l'espai UE-EUA i com aquests principis poden utilitzar-se per a la creació d'un règim internacional de protecció de dades personals en el ciberespai.
El objeto de estudio de esta investigación es el derecho a la protección de los datos personales en el marco del régimen jurídico aplicable al mercado electrónico UE- Estados Unidos. Sus características, así como las de los principales actores que intervienen en este mercado, permiten considerar este régimen jurídico como una base adecuada para el posible desarrollo de un tratado internacional de vocación universal sobre protección de datos personales en el ciberespacio. Los actores y las relaciones incluidas en la investigación son los responsables de las obligaciones jurídicas en materia de protección de datos personales, tanto entidades públicas como privadas. No obstante, también se tienen en cuenta las ‘relaciones informales de poder’ entre Estado y organizaciones privadas, dada la existencia de acuerdos informales o coordinación entre ambos para el intercambio y procesamiento de datos. El marco temporal de la investigación es 2001-2016 (después de los atentados del 9/11 en Estados Unidos y hasta la más reciente reforma del régimen UE-EEUU culminada en 2016). El punto de partida de la investigación es el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, que contiene el marco general para el apoyo y regulación de la protección de datos personales en el ciberespacio. Sin embargo, los caracteres distintivos del ciberespacio exigen una regulación y mecanismos específicos bien diseñados, a nivel universal, para garantizar internacionalmente tales derechos fundamentales relativos a la protección de datos personales. Consecuentemente, la hipótesis de investigación se formula del siguiente modo: en primer lugar, la protección eficaz de los datos personales en el ciberespacio necesita el establecimiento de un sistema jurídico internacional de alcance universal basado en tratados; en segundo lugar, el régimen de la UE sobre protección de datos personales en el ciberespacio y los actuales acuerdos UE-Estados Unidos sobre esta cuestión pueden utilizarse como modelo para la elaboración de dicho Tratado Internacional. La estructura de la tesis se divide en seis capítulos, siendo el Capítulo 1 el \diseño de la investigación y el Capítulo 6 las conclusiones y recomendaciones que se desprenden de la investigación. Así, el Capítulo 2 analiza los Instrumentos Jurídicos Universales, las normas de la UE y los acuerdos UE-EEUU vigentes antes del 5 de junio de 2013 (fecha crítica debido a las revelaciones sobre Vigilancia Electrónica en Masa presentadas mundialmente ese día). Dentro de ese marco jurídico, el Capítulo 3 realiza un análisis jurisprudencial y analiza una selección de casos sobre protección de datos personales suscitados ante los tribunales internos de Estados Unidos y ante el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea, con el objetivo de identificar la interpretación precisa del derecho a la protección de datos personales en el ciberespacio que, posteriormente, ha debido tener en cuenta la reforma normativa en Estados Unidos y en la UE sobre esta materia. El Capítulo 4 analiza y revisa los instrumentos jurídicos promulgados en virtud de la reforma del régimen de protección de datos personales de la UE y los nuevos acuerdos bilaterales entre la UE y los Estados Unidos actualmente en vigor. Por último, el Capítulo 5 evalúa la posibilidad de elaborar un Tratado Internacional de alcance universal que garantice el derecho a la protección de datos personales que ‘circulan’ en el ciberespacio. Teniendo en cuenta las iniciativas formuladas por organizaciones gubernamentales internacionales y por los movimientos no gubernamentales especializados, el capítulo muestra cómo se pueden extraer un conjunto de principios de las reformas de la UE y del régimen aplicable en el espacio UE-EEUU y cómo esos principios pueden utilizarse para la creación de un régimen internacional de protección de datos personales en el ciberespacio.

This paper analyzes the effects of globalization on social protection expenditures in European countries. The analysis adds to the literature due to its special focus on (a) the Eastern European countries and (b) on differences in globalization effects between welfare regimes. We find evidence in favor of the compensation hypothesis in Western Europe which is driven by the conservative welfare regime, outweighing the efficiency effect of globalization in the social-democratic welfare regime. In Eastern European countries the efficiency effect is predominant. No globalization effect is found for the liberal and the southern welfare regimes. Our results indicate some convergence within Western Europe and a divergence between the East and the West of Europe. We stress the importance of disaggregating by welfare regimes when exploring the effects of globalization on public social protection expenditures. (author's abstract)
Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

This research had two main purposes. Firstly it aimed at showing the regulatory framework of both data protection and intellectual property in the European Union and thus making the privacy complications of Digital Rights Managements systems clear in the developed world. This research also aimed at disclosing the complications of employment of DRMs systems in developing countries. To that end Turkey&rsquo
s copyright framework has been reviewed. It was found out that DRMs systems employed in Turkey went beyond the scope of Turkish Copyright Legislation and restricted also legitimate acts which fall within the scope of fair use. DRMs also have hindered development since it restricted availability of educational and cultural works. The review of Turkey&rsquo
s Data Protection regime disclosed that the most important reason behind the non adoption of the draft law was related to the legislators&rsquo
confusion of first pillar and third pillar data protection. It was concluded that Turkey lacked a data protection policy and the lack of such a policy led to the surveillance of the people to such a degree that almost no private space is left for them. The main finding of the research was that Turkey has been one of the best markets for the employment of DRMs with its current copyright regime and lack of data protection rules. The research concluded with proposals of action concerning data protection and DRMs.

With the growth in social, political and economic importanceof the Internet, it has been recognized that the underlyingtechnology of the next generation Internet must not only meetthe many technical challenges but must also meet the socialexpectations of such a pervasive technology. As evidence ofthe strategic importance of the development of the Internet,the European Union has adopted a communication to the Counciland the European Parliament focusing on the next generationInternet and the priorities for action in migrating to the newInternet protocol IPv6 andalso a new Directive (2002/58/EC) on'processing of personal data and protection of privacy in theelectronic communication sector'. The Data Protection Directiveis part of a package of proposals for initiatives which willform the future regulatory framework for electroniccommunications networks and services. The new Directive aims toadapt and update the existing Data ProtectionTelecommunications Directive (97/66/EC) to take account oftechnological developments. However, it is not well undersoodhow this policy and the underlying Internet technology can bebrought into alignment.

This dissertation builds upon the results of my earlierlicentiate thesis by identifying three specific, timely, andimportant privacy areas in the next generation Internet: uniqueidentifiers and observability, privacy enhanced location basedservices, and legal aspects of data traffic.

Each of the three areas identified are explored in the eightpublished papers that form this dissertation. The paperspresent recommendations to technical standarization bodies andregulators concerning the next generation Internet so that thistechnology and its deployment can meet the specific legalobligations of the new European Union data protectiondirective.

In endogenous growth models, in contrast to the neoclassical growth models, government expenditure and taxation have an effect on the long run growth rate. In this thesis I examine whether the empirical evidence support the predictions of endogenous growth models or the neoclassical growth models in relation to fiscal policy. For this purpose I use panel data for fifteen European Union (EU) member and thirty-three developing countries between the years 1970 and 1999. I specifically test the following two propositions. The first proposition states that distortionary taxation decreases growth while non-distortionary taxation does not. The second, states that productive government expenditure increases growth while non-productive expenditure does not. The empirical results are quite different between European Union countries and developing countries. The results do not support endogenous growth especially for developing countries.

Defence date: 21 December 2021
Examining Board: Professor Hans – W. Micklitz, European University Institute (Supervisor), Professor Martijn W. Hesselink, European University Institute, Professor Anna Beckers, Maastricht University, Professor Fernanda Nicola, Washington College of Law.
This doctoral dissertation examines the EU consumer perspective on externalities of production in global value chains (GVCs). Whether as part of the discourse on development or global economic governance, externalities of production are a long-standing issue that has been problematised not only by lawyers but also by economists, anthropologists, sociologists and social scientists at large. In the legal field, the analysis has struggled to contextualise consumer law and policy together with the peculiarities of GVCs as a distinct model of business organisation characterised by contractualisation of processes of production. The thesis argues that contractualisation of production establishes a relationship between consumers and processes of production, also in relation to externalities. Such a relation is not mirrored either by the voluntary self-regulation through which enterprises regulate externalities nor by EU consumer law. The present dissertation addresses this matter and argues that EU consumer law limits the involvement of consumers in the process of self-regulation that leading enterprises of GVCs undertake to prevent and/or remedy externalities of production and that results into a unilateral exercise of epistemic authority. The exercise of epistemic authority is favoured by a ‘communication paradigm’ framing EU consumer law, according to which consumer claims’ on sustainability and externalities of production depend on the content of the communication consumers receive prior or via the contract. This paradigm prevents consumers involvement, in all phases of the contractual relationship, in the definition of a legal episteme of sustainability in line with the core constitutional principles and values as enshrined in the EU Treaties and constitutional charters of member states. The final part of the thesis suggests that the limits deriving by the communication paradigm can be overcome by the CJEU that, by relying on the principle of effectiveness can integrate the communication paradigm with a consumer perspective on externalities of production in the post-contractual phase.

This thesis is as an attempt to overview the forms of trade secret protection presently in place in the United States, Canada, the European Union and Romania. These jurisdictions were selected because they present a diversity of legal background and a variety of forms of trade secret protection.
The introductory chapter deals with the historical and economic backgrounds of the trade secret protection. An overview of trade secret protection at international scale is also provided. The thesis compares the forms of trade secret protection available in each jurisdiction. Based on the survey, the thesis comes to an answer of the question of "What is the most appropriate form of trade secrets protection?".
The final chapter provides a number of conclusions and recommendations.

Defence date: 30 March 2007
Examining Board: Prof. Philip Alston (European University Institute) ; Prof. Francesco Francioni (European University Institute) ; Prof. Olivier de Schutter (University of Louvain) ; Prof. Kevin Boyle (University of Essex Colchester)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses

The present thesis suggests that judicial interaction can benefit constructive solutions of concrete human rights problems as a specific way of integrating European human rights protection. This affirmation is substantiated by case studies examining the interaction of the European Court of Human Rights with the UK House of Lords and Supreme Court on the one hand and with the German Federal Constitutional Court on the other. Yet, the manner in which the courts proceed in their interaction, notably in view of their potentially conflictual stances, can deflect from the concentration on constructively solving the substantive human rights problem with which the courts are confronted. Accordingly, the courts might be inclined to preserve the status quo of their initial positions and to resort to a mere compromise between the different interests involved.

This thesis identifies two major factors in the courts’ reasoning that inhibit the fruitful discussion of the substantive human rights questions brought up by the cases: the reference to “culture” and the focus on their institutional relationship with the balancing of possibly conflicting interests. By way of analysing practical cases against a legal- and political-theoretical backdrop, this work develops how these two factors contribute to the obstruction of a constructive interaction between the courts and to the shielding of controversial views from being discussed and challenged. In response, also by reference to the concrete practice of the courts, this thesis puts forward an approach to the interaction which avoids this inhibiting effect and therefore allows for a comprehensive, deep and critical discussion on how to solve the specific human rights problems raised by the cases./La présente thèse soutient que l’interaction judiciaire peut bénéficier à des solutions constructives des problèmes concrets de droits de l’homme comme une forme spécifique d’intégration de la protection européenne des droits de l’homme. Cette affirmation est corroborée par des études de cas qui examinent l’interaction de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme avec la House of Lords et la Cour suprême du Royaume-Uni d’un côté et avec la Cour constitutionnelle fédérale de l’Allemagne de l’autre. Pourtant, la manière dont les cours procèdent dans leur interaction, notamment au vu de leurs points de vue potentiellement conflictuels, peut détourner l’attention de la solution constructive des problèmes substantiels des droits de l’homme auxquels les cours font face. En conséquence, il se peut que les cours soient susceptibles de préserver le statu quo de leurs positions initiales et d’avoir recours à un simple compromis entre les différents intérêts en cause.

Cette thèse identifie deux facteurs majeurs dans le raisonnement des cours qui entravent la discussion fructueuse des questions substantielles soulevées par les cas :la référence à la « culture » et la concentration sur leur relation institutionnelle avec le balancement des intérêts possiblement conflictuels. Au moyen de l’analyse des cas pratiques sur le fond de la théorie juridique et politique, ce travail fait ressortir comment ces deux facteurs contribuent à l’obstruction d’une interaction constructive entre les cours et à la protection des opinions controversées contre leur discussion et défi. En réponse, également en se fondant sur la pratique concrète des cours, cette thèse avance une approche quant à l’interaction qui évite cet effet inhibant et, par conséquent, permet une discussion complète, profonde et critique de comment résoudre les problèmes spécifiques de droits de l’homme posés par les cas.

Doctorat en Sciences juridiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Mestrado em Economia e Estudos Europeus
In order to evaluate the trade potential of the Cohesion Countries (CC) with the remaining EU11 countries in the threshold of the eastern enlargement of the European Union, as well as with the CC relations with the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), we use a gravity model. The manufacturing trade potential related to the twenty-five countries involved in the eastern enlargement of the EU15 is hence calculated from 1999 to 2002. Special attention is paid to this enlargement's effect on the CC within this approach. Relatively to previous studies with this same methodological approach, this dissertation is, to the best of our knowledge, the first combining a trade potential based on the gravity model with the inclusion of a variable related to the Commodity Composition of Trade (CCT) in terms of manufactures. Several CCT variables were tested for the available data, taking into consideration high levels of disaggregation. Finally, having in consideration the latest academic debate in course, we analysed and tested all the methodological contributions recently proposed in the literature as regards to the improvement of the econometric specification of the gravity model, namely making use of the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood Estimator. The refinement of the explanatory variables considered in the analysis, specifically those related to the distance measurement, as well as the introduction of new variables, were also taken into consideration.
Com o intuito de avaliar o potencial de comércio existente entre os Países da Coesão e os restantes países membros da UE15 no limiar do alargamento desta última a leste e, de igual forma, entre os PC e os denominados como Países da Europa Central e Oriental (PECO), fazemos uso de um modelo gravitacional. Assim, o potencial de comércio em termos de manufacturas relacionado com os vinte e cinco países envolvidos no processo do alargamento a Leste da UE15 foi calculado, nesta dissertação, no que diz respeito ao período que medeia entre 1999 e 2002. Neste contexto, especial atenção foi colocada nos efeitos específicos deste alargamento nos Países da Coesão. Relativamente aos estudos prévios que fazem uso desta mesma abordagem metodológica, esta dissertação é, segundo a nossa percepção, a primeira a combinar o cálculo do potencial de comércio, tendo por base um modelo gravitacional, com a inclusão, neste último, de uma variável relativa à Composição do Comércio em Manufacturas (CCM). Vários indicadores da CCM foram, a este respeito, testados a partir dos dados disponíveis e fazendo uso de níveis detalhados de decomposição. Finalmente, aprofundar-se-á o debate em curso, quer em termos empíricos, quer em termos académicos, através da análise e teste das mais recentes contribuições propostas no que diz respeito à melhoria da especificação econométrica do modelo gravitacional, nomeadamente com recurso ao Pseudo-estimador de Máxima Verosimilhança do Tipo Poisson. O refinamento das variáveis explicativas consideradas na análise, especificamente aquelas relacionadas com a mensuração da variável distância, e a introdução de novas variáveis foram igualmente abordadas.

This study analyses the bank market competition and bank interest margins in the European Union member countries banking sector during the period 2007–2019, using panel data analysis and aggregated data for each country ́s banking sector. Our starting point is the theory about market structure and two structural indexes are used as proxies of the degree of market competition. The methodology is based on the model developed by Ho and Saunders (1981), where the bank is viewed as a risk averse dealer amongst borrowers and lenders. This model has later been extended to fit analyses on nationally aggregated levels, which is appropriate in this study. The result show that bank concentration is not statistically significant in explaining variability of interest margin in the EU banking sectors. Instead, the statistically significant determinants of interest margins are more bank specific variables, such as average operating cost and credit risk. Although this study cannot claim economic significance, it provides information that economic policies should be designed to lower average operating cost rather than market competition, in order to lower interest margin.
I denna studie analyserar vi konkurrensen på bankmarknaden och bankernas räntemarginaler i Europeiska unionens medlemsländers banksektor under perioden 2007–2019, genom paneldataanalys och aggregerad data för varje lands banksektor. Vår utgångspunkt är teorin om marknadsstruktur och vi använder två strukturella mått för att mäta konkurrens på marknaden. Metoden är baserad på den modell som Ho and Saunders (1981) utformade, där banken ses som en riskavert förmedlare mellan låntagare och långivare. Modellen har sedan utökats till att lämpa sig för analyser på en nationellt aggregerad nivå, vilket är passande för denna studie. Resultatet visar att konkurrens på bankmarknaden inte på ett statistiskt signifikant sätt förklarar variabilitet i räntemarginalen. Istället visar resultatet att de statistiskt signifikanta faktorerna för räntemarginalen är mer bankspecifika variabler, såsom genomsnittlig operationell kostnad och kreditrisk. Trots att denna studie inte kan påvisa ekonomisk signifikans, ger den information om att ekonomiska policys bör utformas för att sänka den genomsnittliga operationella kostnaden snarare än att öka marknadskonkurrens, för att minska räntemarginalen.

Cette recherche doctorale part de l’hypothèse générale selon laquelle la méthode communautaire classique serait concurrencée dans les faits par de nouveaux instruments juridiques qui, loin de constituer des initiatives isolées, participent d’un modèle alternatif de gouvernance communautaire qui la transforme en profondeur.

Afin d’identifier les caractéristiques, les contours et les nouvelles formes de normativités de ce modèle alternatif, cette recherche a adopté une approche pragmatique de l’étude droit et étudie empiriquement et systématiquement six politiques publiques européennes :la stratégie européenne pour l’emploi (SEE) et la Méthode Ouverte de Coordination (MOC), le programme européen REACH; la politique européenne de l’eau; la politique comptable européenne; la politique de régulation des services financiers; et la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique et le marché européen du carbone. Ces politiques publiques sont étudiées au moyen d’une approche par les instruments d’action publique qui s’inspire de la démarche et des recherches effectuées par Michel Foucault sur la « gouvernementalité ».

Cette analyse nous aura permis de démontrer que la transformation de la méthode communautaire classique se constate à au moins trois niveaux. Au niveau des acteurs, on assiste à un renforcement de la place des acteurs privés et de la société civile dans les politiques publiques étudiées. La transformation de l’action publique européenne réside également dans l’utilisation abondante de nouveaux instruments d’action publique - plus techniques que politiques et plus incitatifs que contraignants (du type benchmarking) - qui impliquent systématiquement une collaboration entre acteurs publics et privés à différents niveaux du processus décisionnel (coproduction normative). Enfin le mode de sanction est devenu une « contrainte par l’image » reposant sur la figure du « mauvais élève de la classe » véhiculée principalement par des publications de classements basées sur une classification des bonnes pratiques. Corrélativement, cette transformation se constate également dans les phases d’élaboration, d’exécution et de contrôle du droit de l’Union européenne.

Une fois les caractéristiques et les contours de ce modèle alternatif dessinés sur base des politiques publiques étudiées, cette recherche s’est ensuite tournée vers une présentation des discours (politiques et juridiques) et écoles de pensées (Law and Economics / New Public Management / Démocratie délibérative / Expérimentalisme démocratique) permettant de justifier son existence et, par là, de fonder sa légitimité. Enfin, si ce nouveau modèle peut prétendre à une certaine légitimité ou nécessité et s’il n’apparaît pas envisageable de revenir en arrière, sa non-concordance avec le traité est problématique. En effet, ce modèle pose une série de questions relatives au manque de contrôle sur l’activité des institutions de l’Union et à la sauvegarde de l’ordre juridique constitutionnel européen. Plus précisément, l’étude de la question de la protection juridictionnelle effective et du respect du principe de l’équilibre des pouvoirs permet d’identifier un certains nombre d’écueils et de proposer des suggestions d’amélioration pragmatique du modèle décisionnel européen au regard des nouveaux instruments juridiques de la gouvernance européenne.

The starting point of my doctoral research is that the Classic Community Method, as described in the Lisbon Treaty, does not enable one to understand the manner in which law is currently produced in the European Union. I claim that the Community Method is in fact challenged and transformed by new legal instruments that, far from being isolated initiatives, are part of an alternative model of governance.

My research adopts a programmatic approach as to identify the features, contours and new forms of normativity of this alternative model. It studies empirically and systematically six European public policies through “an approach by instruments” inspired in the writings of Michel Foucault on "governmentality”.

This analysis shows that the transformation of the Classic Community method occurs at least at three levels. First, there is a strengthening of the role of private actors and civil society in policy making. Second, the transformation of European public action also lies in the abundant use of new policy instruments - rather technical and political incentives than binding rules (benchmarking) - that involve a systematic collaboration between public and private actors at different levels of decision-making (co-regulation). Third, control and sanctions rely greatly on a “constrained by image” system based primarily on publications of rankings and classifications of good practices.

After I present the features and contours of this alternative model, my research analyzes the political and legal discourses, as well as the schools of thought (Law and Economics / New Public Management / Deliberative Democracy / Democratic Experimentalism), that justify its existence and, therefore, its legitimacy.

Finally, my doctoral work rises the question about the lack of control over these regulatory activities and brings to light the safeguards that should be taken by the European Court of Justice to respect European Union’s Constitutional law

Doctorat en Sciences juridiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

New privacy regulations bring new challenges to organizations that are handling and processing personal data regarding persons within the EU. These challenges come mainly in the form of policies and procedures but also with some opportunities to use technology often used in other sectors to solve problems. In this thesis, we look at the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU that comes into full effect in May of 2018, we analyze what some of the requirements of the regulation means for the industry of processing personal data, and we look at the possible solution of using hardware security modules (HSMs) to reach compliance with the regulation. We also conduct an empirical study using the Delphi method to ask security professionals what they think the most important aspects of securing personal data, and put that data in relation to the identified compliance requirements of the GDPR to see what organizations should focus on in their quest for compliance with the new regulation. We found that a successful implementation of HSMs based on industry standards and best practices address four of the 35 identified GDPR compliance requirements, mainly the aspects concerning compliance with anonymization through encryption, and access control. We also deduced that the most important aspect of securing personal data according to the experts of the Delphi study is access control followed by data inventory and classification.

Si le droit connaît les médicaments et les denrées alimentaires, il ne reconnaît pas les alicaments. Or, ces dernières années ont vu l’apparition et le développement, sur le marché de l’Union européenne, de « produits-frontière » c'est-à-dire de produits se trouvant à la frontière entre les médicaments et les aliments. Confrontées à un vaste conflit de qualification causé par l’ambivalence conceptuelle des « produits-frontière », les institutions de l’Union ont, au nom de la libre circulation des marchandises ainsi que de la nécessité d’une protection accrue des consommateurs et de la santé publique, entamé, dès le début des années 2000, une large harmonisation des dispositions nationales relatives à ces produits. Considérés comme aliments, leur nature particulière nécessite cependant une approche adaptative de la part du législateur européen. Cette nouvelle approche de l’aliment par le droit, favorable à la reconnaissance d’une santé alimentaire, tant convoitée par la société contemporaine, ne résout toutefois pas l’ambiguïté quant à la place à accorder aux « produits-frontière » dans le corpus juridique de l’Union européenne.
Doctorat en Sciences juridiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In the first chapter of this thesis, we investigate the impact of human capital and wage structure on the gender pay in a panel of European countries using a newly available and appropriate database for cross-country comparisons and a comparable methodology for each country.

Our first question is :What role do certain individual characteristics and choices of working men and women play in shaping the cross-country differences in the gender pay gap? What is the exact size of the gender pay gap using the “more appropriate” database available for our purpose? Giving that there are mainly only two harmonized data-sets for comparing gender pay gap throughout Europe: the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) and the European Structure of Earning Survey (ESES). Each database having its shortages: the main weakness of the ECHP is the lack of perfect reliability of the data in general and of wages in particular. However the main advantage of this database is the panel-data dimension and the information on both households and individuals. The data of the ESES is, on the contrary, of a very high standard but it only covers the private sector and has a cross-sectional dimension. Furthermore only few countries are currently available :Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Italy.

We use the European Structure of Earning Survey (ESES) to analyse international differences in gender pay gaps in the private sector based on a sample of five European economies: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Using different methods, we examine how wage structures, differences in the distribution of measured characteristics and occupational segregation contribute to and explain the pattern of international differences. Furthermore, we take account of the fact that indirect discrimination may influence female occupational distributions. We find these latter factors to have a significant impact on gender wage differentials. However, the magnitude of their effect varies across countries.

In the second chapter, we analyse the persistence of the gender pay differentials over time in Europe and better test the productivity hypothesis by taking into account unobserved heterogeneity.

Our second question is :What is the evolution of the pay differential between men and women over a period of time in Europe? And what is the impact of unobserved heterogeneity?

The researcher here provides evidence on the effects of unobserved individual heterogeneity on estimated gender pay differentials. Using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), we present a cross-country comparison of the evolution of unadjusted and adjusted gender pay gaps using both cross-section and panel-data estimation techniques. The analysed countries differ greatly with respect to labour market legislation, bargaining practices structure of earnings and female employment rates. On adjusting for unobserved heterogeneity, we find a narrowed male-female pay differential, as well as significantly different rates of return on individual characteristics. In particularly, the adjusted wage differential decreases by 7 per cent in Belgium, 14 per cent in Ireland, between 20-30 per cent Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain and of 41 per cent and 54 per cent in the UK and in Denmark respectively.

In the third chapter, we investigate causes of the gender pay gap beyond the gender differences in observed and unobserved productive characteristics or simply the sex. Explanations of the gender pay gap may be the penalty women face for having children. Obviously, the motherhood wage penalty is relevant to larger issues of gender inequality given that most women are mothers and that childrearing remains a women’s affair. Thus, any penalty associated with motherhood but not with fatherhood affects many women and as such contributes to gender inequalities as the gender pay gap. Furthermore, the motherhood wage effect may be different along the wage distribution as women with different earnings may not be equal in recognising opportunities to reconcile their mother’s and earner’s role. This brings us to our third question.

Our third question is :What is the wage effect for mothers of young children in the household? And does it vary along the wage distribution of women?

This chapter provides more insight into the effect of the presence of young children on women’s wages. We use individual data from the ECHP (1996-2001) and both a generalised linear model (GLM) and quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the wage penalty/bonus associated with the presence of children under the age of sixteen for mothers in ten EU Member States. We also correct for potential selection bias using the Heckman (1979) correction term in the GLM (at the mean) and a selectivity correction term in the quantile regressions. To distinguish between mothers according to their age at the time of their first birth, wage estimations are carried out, separately, for mothers who had their first child before the age of 25 (‘young mothers’) and mothers who had their first child after the age of 25 (‘old mothers’). Our results suggest that on average young mothers earn less than non-mothers while old mothers obtain a gross wage bonus in all countries. These wage differentials are mainly due to differences in human capital, occupational segregation and, to a lesser extent, sectoral segregation between mothers and non-mothers. This overall impact of labour market segregation, suggests a “crowding” explanation of the family pay gap – pay differential between mothers and non-mothers. Nevertheless, the fact that we still find significant family pay gaps in some countries after we control for all variables of our model suggests that we cannot reject the “taste-based” explanation of the family gap in these countries. Our analysis of the impact of family policies on the family pay gap across countries has shown that parental leave and childcare policies tend to decrease the pay differential between non-mothers and mothers. Cash and tax benefits, on the contrary, tend to widen this pay differential. Sample selection also affects the level of the mother pay gap at the mean and throughout the wage distribution in most countries. Furthermore, we find that in most countries inter-quantile differences in pay between mothers and non-mothers are mainly due to differences in human-capital. Differences in their occupational and sectoral segregation further shape these wage differentials along the wage distribution in the UK, Germany and Portugal in our sample of young mothers and in Spain in the sample of old mothers.

In the fourth chapter, we analyse the combined effect of motherhood and the family status on women’s wage.

Our fourth question is :Is there a lone motherhood pay gap in Europe? And does it vary along the wage distribution of mothers?

Substantial research has been devoted to the analysis of poverty and income gaps between households of different types. The effects of family status on wages have been studied to a lesser extent. In this chapter, we present a selectivity corrected quantile regression model for the lone motherhood pay gap – the differential in hourly wage between lone mothers and those with partners. We used harmonized data from the European Community Household Panel and present results for a panel of European countries. We found evidence of lone motherhood penalties and bonuses. In our analysis, most countries presented higher wage disparities at the top of the wage distribution rather than at the bottom or at the mean. Our results suggest that cross-country differences in the lone motherhood pay gap are mainly due to differences in observed and unobserved characteristics between partnered mothers and lone mothers, differences in sample selection and presence of young children in the household. We also investigated other explanations for these differences such as the availability and level of childcare arrangements, the provision of gender-balanced leave and the level of child benefits and tax incentives. As expected, we have found significant positive relationship between the pay gap between lone and partnered mothers and the childcare, take-up and cash and tax benefits policies. Therefore improving these family policies would reduce the raw pay gap observed.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La réalisation du marché intérieur européen par une meilleure intégration des marchés financiers est aujourd’hui devenue une réalité. L'objectif est toutefois loin d'être atteint en matière de crédit hypothécaire, nonobstant de nombreuses initiatives européennes. Compte tenu de ces difficultés et du postulat selon lequel il serait impossible d'harmoniser le droit des suretés immobilières en raison de leur ancrage culturel et national, une proposition alternative consistant dans la création d'une sûreté immobilière commune (euro-hypothèque), venant se superposer aux systèmes nationaux, a été formulée depuis un certain nombre d'années. La recherche analyse dans un premier temps la réalité du postulat précité à la lumière du droit comparé et conclut qu'en réalité, les différents systèmes trouvent non seulement leur origine dans un modèle identique, fondé sur le caractère accessoire de la sûreté, mais ont en outre connu une évolution similaire au cours de ces dernières années. Il apparaît que ce modèle constitue la meilleure base pour toute harmonisation européenne. Après avoir examiné l'interaction avec le droit international privé, sous l'angle de la protection du consommateur, et le droit européen, sous l'angle de la question de la compétence communautaire et du principe de subsidiarité, des pistes sont proposés pour opérer un rapprochement des législations nationales relatives au crédit hypothécaire. La proposition consiste à intégrer dans un seul instrument juridique contraignant (une directive européenne) les différentes propositions permettant d'opérer un rapprochement des législations nationales à trois niveaux :celui de la sûreté immobilière et de la publicité foncier, celui du contrat de prêt et enfin, celui relatif à la procédure de réalisation de l'immeuble.
Doctorat en droit
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les données à caractère personnel sont appréhendées par le droit comme des objets distincts de la personne à laquelle elles se rapportent. Ce statut particulier serait justifié par la transformation résultant du traitement de données. La loi du 6 janvier 1978 suggère pourtant un rattachement en définissant la donnée personnelle comme une « information relative à une personne physique identifiée ou qui peut être identifiée, directement ou indirectement ». Lesdites données sont donc des éléments identifiants, et en cela, par une interdépendance des éléments subjectifs et objectifs, des composantes de l’identité. Elles forment l’identité numérique de la personne, toujours plus sollicitée et collectée. L’hypothèse intuitive de l’identité est contrariée par le droit positif français, au sein duquel la loi Informatique et libertés marque son autonomie par rapport à l’article 9 du Code civil, matrice des droits de la personnalité. Le droit de l’Union européenne isole également, au sein de la Charte des droits fondamentaux, la protection des données à caractère personnel de la protection de la vie privée. Cette autonomisation permet l’accélération de la patrimonialisation des données à caractère personnel, visées comme éléments isolés par une multitude de contrats d’adhésion autorisant le traitement. Le sectionnement du lien entre la personne et ses données n’est toutefois pas inéluctable : la protection de l’autonomie de la personne peut maintenir cette connexion. La Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme, qui intègre la protection des données à celle de la vie privée, affirme le lien entre ces informations personnelles et l’identité. En outre, sa jurisprudence relative à la protection de l’autonomie personnelle peut constituer une réponse à l’objectivation des personnes. Dans le même sens, la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel relative à la liberté personnelle, vecteur du droit au développement de la personnalité et de la protection de l’identité en France, a déjà accueilli favorablement la protection des données à caractère personnel. Une réflexion qui prend l’identité comme point de départ de l’étude d’un droit à la protection des données met en lumière le véritable enjeu de la collecte exponentielle des données à caractère personnel et du profilage qui s’en suit : l’autonomie des personnes, dont la préservation est assurée à travers le concept de personne humaine, sujet des droits fondamentaux
French law approaches personal data and the person they are related to as separated objects. This special status would be justified by the transformation resulting from the data processing. However, by defining personal data as "information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, directly or indirectly", the law of 6 January 1978 suggests that they are in fact connected to each other. Therefore, those data are to be understood as identifying elements. Following the interdependence of subjective and objective elements, they are components of identity. They form the person’s digital identity, which is increasingly solicited and gathered. The intuitive assumption of personal data as components of identity is thwarted by French positive law, within which the Data Protection Act marks its autonomy in comparison to Article 9 of the Civil Code – the latter being the matrix of rights related to personality. The same way, protection of personal data is distinguished from protection of privacy in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. This increasing autonomy allows the accelerated conversion of personal data into assets. In a multitude of conventions, they are regarded as isolated elements of which processing is allowed. Yet the split between the person and their data could be avoided: protection of the autonomy of the person can ensure a connexion. The European Court of Human Rights considers data protection as part of the right to privacy, hence asserting the existence of a link between personal data and identity of the individual. Moreover, its case law regarding the protection of personal autonomy may constitute an answer to the objectification of individuals. Correlatively, the French Constitutional Court has already taken data protection as a part of personal freedom, the latter being considered in its case law as the embryo of the right to the development of personality and the protection of identity. By taking identity as the starting point of a study examining a right to data protection, it is possible to reveal the stakes of exponential gathering of personal data and ensuing profiling: the autonomy of the individual. Therefore, the latter can be protected by the concept of human person as subject of fundamental rights

La recherche vise à vérifier si et comment, au niveau de l’UE, la lutte contre la criminalité (surtout organisée) est conduite dans le respect de droits et libertés fondamentales, et si la coopération en matière entre les États membres peut promouvoir des standards de protection élevés et homogènes. La traditionnelle reluctance des États à confier les relatives compétences à l’Union a fortement entravé le développement d’un « espace de liberté, sécurité et justice » équilibré. Aujourd’hui le Traité de Lisbonne fournit des outils importants. Après avoir présenté la sécurité dans l’UE, j’aborde la coopération judiciaire pénale. J’analyse la riche production normative à finalité répressive, aussi que les mesures récemment adoptées à finalité protectrice et promotionnelle. Ensuite, je passe à la coopération policière et à l’intervention de l’EU en matière financière / patrimoniale, en tandem avec les droits à la protection des données personnelles et de la propriété privé
The research aims to verify whether and how, at the EU level, the fight against crime (particularly organized crime) is perpetuated in full respect of fundamental rights and freedoms, and whether cooperation among Member States in this field can promote high and homogeneous standards of protection.The historical reluctance of Member States to give the relative competences to the Union has strongly obstructed the development of an equilibrated “area of freedom, security and justice”. However, the Lisbon Treaty has provided important tools. After firstly presenting security in the EU, I discuss judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Both the rich normative production aimed at repression, and the more recently adopted measures finalized at guarantying and promoting individual rights are analyzed. Then, I pass to police cooperation and EU financial / patrimonial intervention, together with the right to protection of personal data and the right to property - the two most at stake

La digitalización de la información ha permitido comunicarse de un modo prácticamente instantáneo independientemente de la distancia. Este hecho, junto con el hundimiento de los sistemas económicos comunistas, ha sido el caldo de cultivo para el fenómeno conocido como globalización. La mezcla de ambos factores, que ha supuesto una eliminación física de las distancias geográficas y temporales, ha cambiado radicalmente el modo de comprender las relaciones personales y económicas en todos los niveles y ángulos comprensibles. Este cambio de paradigma también ha incidido, inevitablemente, sobre los sistemas fiscales. Los legisladores han tenido que modificar las normas clásicas de lucha contra el fraude y la evasión para hacer frente a los retos que plantea la nueva realidad digital en este ámbito. Así pues, esta tesis doctoral pretende abordar la evolución de los modelos de intercambio de información con fines tributarios y su encaje respecto a los derechos y garantías de los contribuyentes que pueden verse afectados en los procedimientos de intercambio de información.
The digitalization of information allowed the communication in a practically instantaneous way, regardless of distance. This fact, together with the collapse of the communist economic systems, has been the breeding ground of for the phenomenon known as Globalization. The mix of both factors, that supposed the erasure of geographical and temporary distances, has radically changed the way of understanding personal and economic relations in all comprehensible levels and angles. This change of paradigm has inevitably underscored the tax systems as well. Legislators have had to modify the classical norms to counteract tax fraud and evasion, in order to face the challenges posed by the new digital reality in this playing field. Therefore, this PhD Thesis expects to tackle the evolutions of the models to exchange information for tax purposes and how they fit regarding the rights and guarantees of the taxpayers that might be affected on the exchange of information procedures.
La digitalització de la informació ha permès comunicar-se d’una manera pràcticament instantània independentment de la distància. Aquest fet, juntament amb l’esfondrament dels sistemes econòmics comunistes, ha estat el caldo de cultiu per el fenomen conegut com a globalització. La barreja d’ambdós factors, que ha suposat una eliminació física de les distàncies geogràfiques i temporals, ha canviat radicalment el mode de comprendre les relacions personals i econòmiques en tots els nivells i angles comprensibles. Aquest canvi de paradigma també ha incidit, inevitablement, sobre els sistemes fiscals. Els legisladors han hagut de modificar les normes clàssiques de lluita contra el frau i l’evasió per fer front als reptes que planteja la nova realitat digital en aquest àmbit. Així, doncs, aquesta tesis doctoral pretén abordar l’evolució dels models d’intercanvi d’informació amb finalitats tributàries i el seu encaix respecte dels drets i garanties els contribuents que es poden veure afectats en els procediments d’intercanvi d’informació.

L’intérêt d’une réflexion sur les échanges de données personnelles de sécurité entre l’Union européenne et les tiers est né d’une interrogation sur le cadre juridique auquel ces échanges se rattachent, et l’existence de garanties en matière de protection des données. En partant du constat que les États sont à l’origine de la création de réseaux de coopération policière et judiciaire, l’irruption de l’Union européenne et de ses Agences dans des sphères régaliennes a de quoi déconcerter. L’intervention de l’UE et de ses Agences doit également attirer l’attention sur le respect des conditions de ces échanges qui sont soumis à l’exigence de garanties adéquates de la part des États tiers et Cet avènement nécessite de déterminer au préalable comment les échanges de données avec les tiers sont devenues progressivement un instrument au service de l’espace de liberté de sécurité et de justice (ELSJ). En cela, la sécurité telle qu’elle est ici appréhendée, concerne la lutte contre le terrorisme, la criminalité organisée et l’immigration clandestine. Ainsi cette thèse vise, à travers un examen des accords conclus par l’UE et ses Agences avec les tiers, à déceler, analyser, et mettre en évidence les règles qui régissent ces échanges de données personnelles ainsi que la protection qui s’y rattache. Elle doit permettre de mieux cerner la fonction de l’Union européenne et le rôle des États membres dans ces échanges, d’évaluer les garanties apportées par l’UE et ses partenaires, et d’aboutir à l’émergence d’un régime d’ensemble hétérogène mais dont l’unité réside dans le souci d’assurer une protection adéquate
Enabling security between the European Union and third party personal data exchange leads one to reflect on the related legal framework and safeguards regarding data protection. As states are at the origin of police networks and judicial cooperation, the emergence of the EU and its agencies in sovereign spheres has been astonishing. For the EU,respecting the conditions of such exchanges requires adequate guarantees from third states. To better understand this, one should first analyze to which extent these exchanges have gradually become an instrument servicing the areas of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ, "security" here implies the fight against terrorism, organized crime and illegal immigration). This thesis aims to detect, analyze and highlight the rules governing the exchanges of personal data and the protection attached to them. Its goal is to understand the function of the EU and the role of member states in these exchanges, to assess the guarantees provided by the EU or its partners and to lead to the emergence of a system which could provide adequate protection. The first part will determine the modalities of cooperation between the EU and third parties in the field of personal data security exchanges; identifying the existence of safety data exchange networks before looking into the fight against terrorism and organized crime’s international dimension. A focus on external standards in the EU will lead the reader to grasp how safety within third party data exchange networks may be structured and to understand the role of international organizations such as the UN (or extraterritorial jurisdiction from third countries such as the USA). The EU having developed its cooperation regarding safety data exchanges, its foreign policy in terms of AFSJ gives one an overview of safety data exchange networks and their diversity, but it also shows the limits of their extension. These different forms of cooperation are the foundations of constituent EU treaties, yet they face legal and democratic issues as far as EU legitimacy is concerned. The EU integration process, on which safety with third party data exchanges is based, will also be studied; if this integration is a success overall, sovereignty issues have also brought their share of safety data protection alterations. This thesis’ second part focuses on the guarantees related to safety data exchanges, fundamental rights protection regarding this personal data and the need for adequate protection when transferring data to third parties. The adequacy of "normative" protection must be analyzed in global terms, that is to say within an international framework. The study of normative protection will be followed by a thorough examination of their effective protection. The reader will see how data exchange security transparency enables people to exercise their right to both access data and challenge decisions taken on the basis of data exchange safety. Effective protection leads to the identification of responsibilities related to safety data exchanges, the mechanisms of which may highlight that the EU or third parties have breaches in their obligations

The thesis, entitled "Essays on macroeconometrics and short-term forecasting",

is composed of three chapters. The first two chapters are on nowcasting,

a topic that has received an increasing attention both among practitioners and

the academics especially in conjunction and in the aftermath of the 2008-2009

economic crisis. At the heart of the two chapters is the idea of exploiting the

information from data published at a higher frequency for obtaining early estimates

of the macroeconomic variable of interest. The models used to compute

the nowcasts are dynamic models conceived for handling in an efficient way

the characteristics of the data used in a real-time context, like the fact that due to the different frequencies and the non-synchronicity of the releases

the time series have in general missing data at the end of the sample. While

the first chapter uses a small model like a VAR for nowcasting Italian GDP,

the second one makes use of a dynamic factor model, more suitable to handle

medium-large data sets, for providing early estimates of the employment in

the euro area. The third chapter develops a topic only marginally touched

by the second chapter, i.e. the estimation of dynamic factor models on data characterized by block-structures.

The firrst chapter assesses the accuracy of the Italian GDP nowcasts based

on a small information set consisting of GDP itself, the industrial production

index and the Economic Sentiment Indicator. The task is carried out by using

real-time vintages of data in an out-of-sample exercise over rolling windows

of data. Beside using real-time data, the real-time setting of the exercise is

also guaranteed by updating the nowcasts according to the historical release calendar. The model used to compute the nowcasts is a mixed-frequency Vector

Autoregressive (VAR) model, cast in state-space form and estimated by

maximum likelihood. The results show that the model can provide quite accurate

early estimates of the Italian GDP growth rates not only with respect

to a naive benchmark but also with respect to a bridge model based on the

same information set and a mixed-frequency VAR with only GDP and the industrial production index.

The chapter also analyzes with some attention the role of the Economic Sentiment

Indicator, and of soft information in general. The comparison of our

mixed-frequency VAR with one with only GDP and the industrial production

index clearly shows that using soft information helps obtaining more accurate

early estimates. Evidence is also found that the advantage from using soft

information goes beyond its timeliness.

In the second chapter we focus on nowcasting the quarterly national account

employment of the euro area making use of both country-specific and

area wide information. The relevance of anticipating Eurostat estimates of

employment rests on the fact that, despite it represents an important macroeconomic

variable, euro area employment is measured at a relatively low frequency

(quarterly) and published with a considerable delay (approximately

two months and a half). Obtaining an early estimate of this variable is possible

thanks to the fact that several Member States publish employment data and

employment-related statistics in advance with respect to the Eurostat release

of the euro area employment. Data availability represents, nevertheless, a

major limit as country-level time series are in general non homogeneous, have

different starting periods and, in some cases, are very short. We construct a

data set of monthly and quarterly time series consisting of both aggregate and

country-level data on Quarterly National Account employment, employment

expectations from business surveys and Labour Force Survey employment and

unemployment. In order to perform a real time out-of-sample exercise simulating

the (pseudo) real-time availability of the data, we construct an artificial

calendar of data releases based on the effective calendar observed during the first quarter of 2012. The model used to compute the nowcasts is a dynamic

factor model allowing for mixed-frequency data, missing data at the beginning

of the sample and ragged edges typical of non synchronous data releases. Our

results show that using country-specific information as soon as it is available

allows to obtain reasonably accurate estimates of the employment of the euro

area about fifteen days before the end of the quarter.

We also look at the nowcasts of employment of the four largest Member

States. We find that (with the exception of France) augmenting the dynamic

factor model with country-specific factors provides better results than those

obtained with the model without country-specific factors.

The third chapter of the thesis deals with dynamic factor models on data

characterized by local cross-correlation due to the presence of block-structures.

The latter is modeled by introducing block-specific factors, i.e. factors that

are specific to blocks of time series. We propose an algorithm to estimate the model by (quasi) maximum likelihood and use it to run Monte Carlo

simulations to evaluate the effects of modeling or not the block-structure on

the estimates of common factors. We find two main results: first, that in finite samples modeling the block-structure, beside being interesting per se, can help

reducing the model miss-specification and getting more accurate estimates

of the common factors; second, that imposing a wrong block-structure or

imposing a block-structure when it is not present does not have negative

effects on the estimates of the common factors. These two results allow us

to conclude that it is always recommendable to model the block-structure

especially if the characteristics of the data suggest that there is one.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La tesis se encarga de analizar, por un lado, la integración y el desarrollo de las nuevas tecnologías en la Administración de Justicia; y, por otro, los parámetros que constituyen la validez y eficacia del documento electrónico.
La primera cuestión se centra en la configuración de los Sistemas de Información de la Oficina Judicial y del Ministerio Fiscal, así como de la informatización de los Registros Civiles, donde el art. 230 LOPJ es la pieza clave. Se estudian sus programas, aplicaciones, la videoconferencia, los ficheros judiciales y las redes de telecomunicaciones que poseen la cobertura de la firma electrónica reconocida, donde cobran gran relevancia los convenios de colaboración tecnológica. La digitalización de las vistas quizá sea una de las cuestiones con más trascendencia, teniendo en cuenta que el juicio es el acto que culmina el proceso. Aunque no todos los proyectos adoptados en el ámbito de la e.justicia se han desarrollado de forma integral, ni han llegado a la totalidad de los órganos judiciales. El objetivo final es lograr una Justicia más ágil y de calidad, a lo cual aspira el Plan Estratégico de Modernización de la Justicia 2009-2012 aprobado recientemente.
En referencia a la segunda perspectiva, no cabe duda que el Ordenamiento jurídico y los tribunales, en el ámbito de la justicia material, otorgan plena validez y eficacia al documento electrónico. Nuestra línea de investigación se justifica porque cada vez son más los procesos que incorporan soportes electrónicos de todo tipo, ya sea al plantearse la acción o posteriormente como medio de prueba (art. 299.2 LEC). Entre otros temas examinamos el documento informático, la problemática que rodea al fax, los sistemas de videograbación y el contrato electrónico.
La tesi s'encarrega d'analitzar, per una part, la integració i el desenvolupament de les noves tecnologies dins l´Administració de Justícia; i, per l'altra, els paràmetres que constitueixen la validesa i l'eficàcia del document electrònic.
La primera qüestió es centra en la configuració dels Sistemes d´Informació de l´Oficina Judicial i del Ministeri Fiscal, així com de la informatització dels Registres Civils, on l'art. 230 LOPJ es la peça clau. S'estudien els seus programes, aplicacions, la videoconferència, el fitxers judicials i les xarxes de telecomunicacions que tenen la cobertura de la firma electrònica reconeguda, on cobren gran rellevància els convenis de col·laboració tecnològica. La digitalització de les vistes tal vegada sigui una de les qüestions amb més transcendència, tenint amb compte que el judici es l'acte que culmina el procés. Però no tots el projectes adoptats en l'àmbit de la e.justicia s'han desenvolupat d'una manera integral ni han arribat a la totalitat dels òrgans judicials. L'objectiu final es assolir una Justícia més àgil i de qualitat, al que aspira el Pla Estratègic de Modernització de la Justícia 2009-2012 aprovat recentment.
En referència a la segona perspectiva, no hi ha dubte que l´Ordenament jurídic i els tribunals, en l'àmbit de la justícia material, donen plena validesa i eficàcia al document electrònic. La nostra línia d'investigació es justifica perquè cada vegada son més el processos que incorporen suports electrònics de tot tipus, ja sigui quant es planteja l'acció o posteriorment como a medi de prova (art. 299.2 LEC). Entre altres temes examinem el document informàtic, la problemàtica que envolta al fax, els sistemes de videogravació i el contracte electrònic.
The thesis seeks to analyse, on the one hand, the integration and development of the new technologies in the Administration of Justice; and, on the other, the parameters which constitute the validity and efficiency of the electronic document.
The first question centres on the configuration of the Information Systems of the Judicial Office and the Public Prosecutor, as well as the computerisation of the Civil Registers, where the art. 230 LOPJ it's the part key. Their programmes, applications, the Video Conferencing, the judicial registers and the telecommunication networks which are covered by the recognised electronic signatures, are studied, where the agreements on technological collaboration gain great relevance. The digitalisation of evidence might perhaps be one of the questions with most consequence, bearing in mind that the judgment is the act by which the process is culminated. Although not all the projects adopted within the compass of e.justice have developed completely nor have reached all the judicial organs. The final objective is to achieve an agile, quality Justice, to which the recently approved Strategic Plan for the Modernisation of Justice aspires.
With reference to the second perspective, there is no doubt that the juridical Ordinance and the tribunals within the compass of material justice grant full validity and efficacy to the electronic document. Our line of investigation is justified because there are more and more processes which are sustained by electronic supports of all kinds, whether it be at the establishment of the action or later, as a proof of it (art. 299.2 LEC). Amongst other things, we examine the computerised document, the problems which surround the fax, the systems for video recording and the electronic contract.

Defence date: 8 June 2015
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Gregorio Garzón Clariana, Autonomous University of Barcelona; Dr. Maria O’Neill, University of Abertay Dundee; Professor Martin Scheinin, European University Institute.
This thesis seeks to examine the existing EU frameworks for data-sharing for law enforcement purposes, both within the EU and between the EU and third countries, the data protection challenges to which these give rise, and the possible responses to those challenges at both EU and global levels. The analysis follows a bottom-up approach, starting with an examination of the EU internal data-sharing instruments. After that, it studies the data transfers conducted under the scope of an international agreement; and finally, it concludes by discussing the current international initiatives for creating universal data protection standards. As for the EU data-sharing instruments, this thesis demonstrates that these systems present shortcomings with regard to their implementation and usage. Moreover, each instrument has its own provisions on data protection and, despite the adoption of a Framework Decision in 2008, this has not brought about a convergence of data protection rules in the JHA field. A similar multiplicity of instruments is also found when the EU transfers data to third countries for the purpose of preventing and combating crimes. This is evident from examining the existing data-sharing agreements between the EU and the US. Each agreement has a section on data protection and data security rules, which again differ from the general clauses of the 2008 Framework Decision. This study demonstrates the influence of US interests on such agreements, as well as on the ongoing negotiations for an umbrella EU-US Data Protection Agreement. One possible way to ensure a high level of EU data protection standards in the field of law enforcement in the face of US pressure is by enhancing the role of Europol. This EU Agency shares information with EU member states and third countries. This thesis demonstrates that Europol has a full-fledged data protection framework, which is stronger than most of the member states’ privacy laws. However, taking Europol rules as a reference for global standards would only partially achieve the desired result. The exchange of data for security purposes does not only involve law enforcement authorities, but also intelligence services. The recent NSA revelations have shown that the programmes used by these bodies to collect and process data can be far more intrusive and secretive than any current law enforcement system. In view of the above, this thesis explores the potential of CoE Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Automatic Processing of Personal Data and ii the Cybercrime Convention as the basis for a global regime for data protection in law enforcement. This thesis concludes that an optimum global data protection framework would entail a combination of the 108 CoE Data Protection Convention and the Cybercrime Convention. The cumulative effect of these two legal instruments would bind both law enforcement and intelligence services in the processing of data. In sum, by promoting the Europol approach to data protection and existing Council of Europe rules, the EU could play a crucial role in the creation of global data protection standards.

Defence date: 13 June 2012
Examining Board: Professor Martin Scheinin, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor); Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Tuomas Ojanen, University of Helsinki; Professor Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute.
First made available online: 25 August 2021
This thesis examines the added value of the fundamental right to data protection within the EU legal order when law enforcement measures are at stake. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the concept of data protection, its underlying values and aims, and the approaches to this right. It discusses the current theories and the existing case-law on data protection by identifying their shortcomings. It introduces a new theory on data protection that reconstructs the right and reshapes in a clear and comprehensive manner its understanding. The thesis tests the added value of the ‘reconstructed’ right to data protection in the most difficult context: law enforcement and counter-terrorism. Three specific case-studies of data processing in the field of law enforcement are used: 1) the information collection 2) the information storage and, 3) the information transfer case. The information collection case discusses the EU Data Retention Directive and addresses the conceptual confusions between the rights to privacy and data protection that surround it, before turning to a substantive fundamental rights assessment of the Directive. The information storage case examines the added value of the fundamental right to data protection in the context of the access of law enforcement authorities to information stored on EU-scale databases such as the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), the Visa Information System (VIS) and Eurodac. Finally, the information transfer case discusses the role of the rights to privacy and data protection with regard to the transfer of data from the EU to the US for counterterrorism purposes. In this context, it addresses the EU-US PNR and TFTP cases.

Supervisor: Prof. Giovanni Sartor, EUI
Award date: 13 February 2012
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Cybercrime and cyber-security are attracting increasing attention, both for the relevance of Critical Information Infrastructure to the national economy, and the interplay of the policies tackling them with ‘ICT sensitive’ liberties, such as privacy and data protection. As such, the subject falls in the ‘security vs. privacy’ debate. The objective of this study is twofold. On the one hand, it is descriptive: it aims to cast light on the (legal substantive) nature of, and relationship between, cybercrime and cyber security, which are currently ‘terms of hype’. On the other, it explores the possibility of reconciling data protection and privacy with the prevention of cybercrime and the pursuit of a cyber-security policy, and therefore wishes to explore causation. The latter is a subset of the wider question of whether it is possible to build ‘human rights by design’, i.e. a security policy that reconciles both security and human rights. I argue that narrow or online crimes and broad or off-line crimes are profoundly different in terms of underlying logics while facing the same procedural challenges, and that only narrow cybercrime pertains to cyber-security, understood as a policy. Yet, the current policy debate is focussing too much on broad cybercrimes, thus biasing the debate over the best means to tackle ICT-based crimes and challenging the liberties involved. I then claim that the implementation of data protection principles in a cyber-security policy can act as a proxy to reduce cyber threats, and in particular (narrow) cybercrime, provided that the following caveats are respected: i) we privilege a technical computer security notion; ii) we update the data protection legislation (in particular the understanding of personal data); and iii) we adopt a core-periphery approach to human rights. The study focuses on the EU. Due to time constraints, the interaction between privacy and data protection and other liberties involved, as well as purely procedural issues are outside of the scope of this research.

Defence date: 30 March 2017
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, EUI (Supervisor); Professor Deirdre Curtin, EUI; Professor Anne Flanagan, Queen Mary University of London; Professor Ronald Leenes, Tilburg University
This thesis concerns a specific instance of the trade-off between security and ‘privacy rights’, namely cybersecurity, as it applies to EU Law. The research question is whether, and how, the pursuit of cybersecurity can be reconciled with the protection of personal data and respect for private and family life, which I treat as two independent rights. Classic legal argumentation is used to support a normative critique against the trade-off; an in-depth scrutiny of ‘(cyber)security’ and ‘privacy’ further shows that the trade-off is methodologically flawed: it is an inappropriate intellectual device that offers a biased understanding of the subject matter. Once the terms of discussion are reappraised, the relationship between cybersecurity and privacy appears more nuanced, and is mediated by elements otherwise overlooked, chiefly technology. If this fatally wounds the over-simplistic trade-off model, and even opens up avenues for integration between privacy and cybersecurity in EU law, on the other hand it also raises new questions. Looked at from the perspective of applicable law, technology can both protect and infringe privacy rights, which leads to the paradox of the same technology being both permissible and impermissible, resulting in a seeming impasse. I identify the problem as lying in the combination of technology neutrality, the courts’ avoidance in pronouncing on matters of technology, and the open-ended understanding of privacy rights. To appraise whether cybersecurity and privacy rights can be reconciled, I develop a method that bridges the technological and legal understandings of information security and privacy, based on the notions/methods of protection goals, attributes and core/periphery or essence, and which has the advantage of highlighting the independence of the two privacy rights. A trial run of the method discloses aspects of the ‘how’ question that were buried under the trade-off debate, viz. the re-appropriation of the political and judicial process vis-àvis technology.
Chapter 4 draws upon an article in Neue Kriminalpolitik 4/2013

Defence date: 6 July 2011
Examining Board: Professor Giovanni Sartor, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor); Prof. Andrew Murray, London School of Economics and Political Science; Prof. Hans-W. Mickltz, European University Institute; Dr. Alfonso Scirocco European Economic and Social Committee
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
In the context of the continuous advance of information technologies and biomedicine, and of the creation of economic blocs, this thesis is devoted to the analysis of the role data protection plays in the integration of markets, with a special emphasis on financial and insurance services. Moreover, it is also concerned with the identification of differences in the data protection systems of EU member states and with the development of common standards and principles of data protection that could help to build a data protection model for Mercosur, keeping in mind the need to establish a high level of data protection without creating unnecessary constraints for the flow of information. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first one deals with the evolution of the right to privacy, focusing on the last few decades, taking into account the development of new technologies. In this part an analysis of the European framework of data protection and of its standards developed is carried out. Then, in the second part, the interaction between data protection and the industries selected as case studies, namely insurance, bank and credit reporting, is discussed. This discussion concentrates on specific issues, such as generalisation and discrimination, adverse selection and the processing of sensitive and genetic data. The focus of the third part is the analysis of the legislation of three EU member states (France, Italy and UK). In order to perform this comparative exercise, some important issues are taken into account: the concepts of personal and anonymous data, data protection principles, the role of the data protection authorities, the role of the data protection officer, data subjects’ rights, the processing of sensitive data, the processing of genetic data and the experience of the case studies in processing data. Moreover, issues related to the specific member states are also considered. Subsequently to the comparative analysis, some recommendations are proposed for updating EU legislation on data protection, so as to reduce the barriers to the establishment of an internal market, mainly for financial and insurance services. Finally, the proposal of a model for data protection that could be adopted by Mercosur, taking into account the different levels of data protection that exist in its member states, is conducted in the last part. The thesis concludes by emphasising the important role data protection can play in the process of markets’ integration.

Digitisation had a profound impact on the creation, reproduction, and dissemination of works protected by copyright. Works in digital format are vulnerable to infringement, and technological protection measures are accordingly applied as protection. Technological protection measures can, however, easily be circumvented, and additional legal protection against circumvention was needed. Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (the WCT) obliges Member States to provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of technological measures applied to works protected by copyright. Contracting parties must refine the provisions of Article 11 and provide for exceptions on the prohibition. Article 11 does not specify whether it pertains to only certain types of technological measures, nor does it prohibit the trafficking in circumvention devices. The United States implemented the provisions of Article 11 of the WCT through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the DMCA). Section 1201 of the DMCA prohibits the circumvention of technological measures. It is detailed and relates to two categories of technological measures - access control and copy control. It prohibits not only the act of circumvention, but also the trafficking in circumvention devices. Article 6 of the EC Directive on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society of 2001 implements Article 11 of the WCT. Article 6 seeks to protect Aeffective technological measures@. It prohibits both the act of circumvention and circumvention devices. Although Article 11 of the WCT is silent on the issue of access control, it seems as if the international trend is to provide legal protection to access controls, thus indirectly creating a right to control access. South Africa has not yet implemented Article 11 of the WCT. The South African Copyright Act of 1979 does not protect technological protection measures. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002 (the ECT Act) provides protection against the circumvention of technological protection measures applied to digital data. The definition of Adata@ is such that it could include protected works. If applied to protected works, the anti-circumvention provisions of the ECT Act would be detrimental to user privileges. As developing country, it seems to be in South Africa's best interest to the implement the provisions of Article 11 in such a manner that it still allows users access to and legitimate use of works protected by copyright.
Jurisprudence
LL.D.

Defence Date: 17 December 2010
Examining Board: Prof. Bruno De Witte, Université de Maastricht (Directeur de thèse IUE); Prof. Ruth Rubio Marin, Institut universitaire européen; Prof. Renate Weber, Parlement européen; Prof. Dia Anagnostou, Université de Macedoine-Thessaloniki/ ELIAMEP
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Source d’inspiration romantique pour des Hugo ou des Bizet, objet de mesures répressives prenant des formes aussi diverses que la « chasse aux tsiganes » ou des politiques « éclairées » poursuivant leur sédentarisation et transformation en « bons fermiers », prétexte de débat académique passionnel s’interrogeant sur les origines d’une langue et l’identité des personnes, les Roms font finalement irruption dans le domaine juridique notamment après l’effondrement du régime communiste. Il s’agit d’une telle multiplication de l’activité juridique que l’on ne trouve plus d’organisme européen, international ou national qui n’ait été conduit à s’intéresser, de quelque manière que ce soit, à la situation des Roms. Cette thèse a comme point de départ cette effervescence juridique et vise à identifier et à décrire la construction d’un régime juridique pour la protection des Roms. Il s’agit d’un véritable processus qui a entraîné une cohorte d’acteurs. Parmi eux, deux se distinguent et c’est précisément sur leurs efforts que cette thèse se concentre : le Conseil de l’Europe et l’Union européenne. Leur contribution pour la protection des Roms est significative : l’interprétation par la CEDH de la Convention européenne pour les droits de l’homme en tant que protégeant la vie en caravane des Roms comme mode de vie traditionnel entrant sous la protection de l’article 8, la dénonciation par la même cour d’une discrimination généralisée subie par les Roms dans le domaine de l’éducation ; il y a aussi la Charte sociale européenne apportant des clarifications importantes notamment quant au droit des Roms à un logement effectif, à la santé et à l’assistance sociale ainsi qu’à la protection contre la pauvreté et l’ exclusion sociale. Mentionnons également le rôle de la Convention-cadre pour la protection des minorités nationales à confirmer le statut de minorité pour les Roms ainsi que l’apport de la Charte des langues régionales ou minoritaires à la préservation de leur identité culturelle. Quant à l’Union européenne, il s’agit d’analyser l’intérêt à la fois exogène et endogène manifesté par les institutions européennes à l’égard des Roms, ainsi que la contribution du droit de l’Union européenne à leur protection, surtout par des instruments comme la Directive à l’égalité raciale. Cette thèse vise aussi à faire passer l’analyse de la contribution de ces divers instruments du plan théorique au plan pratique. Pour faire cela, nous prenons en compte un seul Etat - la Roumanie - afin d’étudier la protection des Roms en relation avec les instruments européens rappelés. La recherche poursuite dans le cadre de cette thèse a conduit à conclure sur l’émergence d’un régime de protection pour les Roms, à caractère hybride, associant des éléments du régime de la protection des minorités (droits linguistiques, protection de l’identité culturelle) à des éléments liés aux droits de l’homme et notamment aux droits économiques et sociaux. Mais plus important encore, cette thèse a mis en évidence plusieurs points d’inquiétude : une véritable polémique engageant des experts et représentants des Roms quant à la question de savoir si les Roms doivent demander des droits uniquement en tant que membres de l’humanité, c’est-à-dire des droits de l’homme, ou s’ils doivent demander des droits également en tant que membres d’un groupe spécifique, c’est-à-dire, des droits des minorités ; l’opportunité et l’utilité d’un tel régime de protection pour les Roms, surtout dans le contexte ou davantage de voix posent ces questions : la réalité des besoins telle qu’elle est répercutée au niveau des organismes qui élaborent des instruments juridiques reflète-t-elle la réalité du terrain ? Ces divers développements juridiques réussissent-ils à améliorer la situation des Roms et à faire respecter leurs droits ?

Defence date: 18 December 2009
Examining Board: Professor Christian Joerges, University of Bremen (supervisor), Professor Hans-W. Micklitz, European University Institute, Professor Roland Bieber, University of Lausanne, Professor Stephen Weatherill, University of Oxford
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis examines the relationship between fundamental rights and consumer protection in the European Union. Traditionally, consumer regulation has been applied as a onedimensional tool to achieve economic integration. In 2000, the Charter of Fundamental Rights broadened the scope of consumer law to include a social dimension; however, this initiative remains limited in practice, because of the abstract wording in the Charter, and because of the partly contrasting full-harmonisation strategy of the EU. Moreover, the Charter is not binding and it risks succumbing to traditional market-oriented policy tendencies. This thesis tries to build a bridge between the two approaches to consumer law - the market-oriented approach, and the fundamental-rights based approach. To do so, it suggests a new consumer concept, based upon the capability approach of the economist Amartya Sen. Such an approach enables the consumer to deal with the risks of increasingly integrated and complex markets, by focusing upon basic procedural rights. Three areas of consumer law have been gaining importance in recent times: credit agreements, telecommunications, and collective redress. Cases from these areas are considered here, as they exemplify the inter-action between fundamental rights, and participation in cross-border markets. First, cases in consumer credit illustrate the impact of fundamental rights on the provision of fair contractual conditions, and on access to responsible lending schemes. Second, the new telecommunication proposal highlights the importance of regulatory participation mechanisms for consumers, to ensure access to services of general interests and to ensure data protection in an increasingly privatised environment. Finally, collective redress mechanisms show how procedural innovations can improve judicial participation through the basic right of access to justice. The thesis concludes by proposing a new legal approach for consumer law in the EU, in order reach a compromise between social and economic demands.

Defence date: 21 September 2001
Examining board: Prof. Adrienne Héritier (Max-Planck Projektgruppe RdG, Bonn - Supervisor ; Prof. Martin Jänicke (Freie Universität Berlin) ; Prof. Michael Keating (EUI) ; Prof. Brigid Laffan (University College Dublin)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 21 October 2013
Examining Board: Professor Loïc Azoulai, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor) ; Professor Bruno de Witte, European University Institute; Professor Giorgio Gaja, University of Florence; Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex.
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
The recognition of the legally binding value of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights has profoundly transformed the Union system of fundamental rights protection. The novelties not only concern the sources of this protection, but also the conditions for the application and interpretation of EU fundamental rights. In particular, before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the Court of Justice was the exclusive architect of its approach to fundamental rights, whereas in the era of the legally binding Charter is confronted with written rules on the subject. Moreover, if there is no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty has put an unprecedented emphasis on the protection and promotion of EU fundamental rights, the Member States have contextually expressed, and with equal emphasis, concerns towards an ever-increasing expansion of the scope of EU fundamental rights, at the expense of domestic standards and material competences. Against this background, the aim of this thesis is to reconstruct the scope of the protection offered (better, that should be offered) by the EU Charter. The analysis covers problems relating both to the scope of application of the Charter and to its effects. Some of the questions addressed are new, as they stem from novelties introduced by the Charter others are veritable topoi of the EU discourse on fundamental rights, which nevertheless need to be revisited in light of the new scenario just described. The leading idea is that, in order to overcome the ambiguity of the Charter on many crucial issues concerning its scope of application and effects, reliance must be made on the role assigned to EU fundamental rights by the revised Treaties. These, and the progressive evolution of the EU system of fundamental rights protection, suggest that fundamental rights are constitutive values of the EU legal order.

Defence Date: 06 December 2010
Examining Board: Fabrizio CAFAGGI (Supervisor, EUI); Christian JOERGES (former EUI/University of Bremen); Colin SCOTT (University College, Dublin); Jyrki TALA (University of Turku and National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
European Union’s (EU) legislature allows for EU level private interest governments (PIGs): stakeholders, industry, professional and co-operative bodies; and control entrepreneurs (PriCEs) to complement regulatory strategies. However, governance studies have infrequently conducted cross-sector analysis on how they assist in implementing EU policies. This study conducts cross-sector analysis of private compliance instruments (PCIs) utilised as partial implementing strategy to EU’s business regulation across consumer, worker health, safety and environmental policies. It introduces several opportunities to learn from differences. PriCEs appear operational PCIs throughout several legislative and private regulatory frameworks; regulatory sectors; targeting sector- or business-specific compliance; and employing either command-and-control or reflexive/responsive regulatory modes. However, workable 'in-house' PCIs implemented by PIGs necessitate specific market architecture and legislative pressure. Within sectors of health and safety of consumers and workers specific conditions may support in-house PCIs, which control business-specific compliance within command-and-control mode. However, within environmental sector, such in-house PCIs appear unfeasible. The EU legislature has also architected PCIs, which somewhat equate to reflexive/responsive mode, to consumer and environmental policies, whilst it has abstained from introduction of such instruments to worker health and safety due to autonomous social dialogue. Generally, at EU level, the potential for using outfitted reflexive mode PCIs appears greater than employing command-and-control mode in CPIs.

Defence date: 22 June 2015
Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Patrizia Vigni, University of Siena; Professor Craig Barker, London South Bank University; Professor Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute.
This thesis explores the development of European Union’s model of protecting its citizens in the world, demonstrating it to be a unique and complex mixture of EU internal and external policies and instruments that is unlike any other international, regional, or domestic model of protecting individuals abroad. The thesis will critically assess the three main stages of development of the EU model until the present day. The first stage started in 1993, when the Maastricht Treaty introduced an EU citizenship right to equal protection abroad and this continued for the following decade. It will be shown that during this period the EU model of protecting the Union citizens abroad consisted of a purely horizontal form of cooperation among the Member States that materialised in a sui generis type of international agreement that has restricted the efficiency of the EU citizenship right, due to the Member States’ reluctance to lose their State prerogatives in favour of the EU. The second stage of development started in 2004 when a number of international disasters affecting EU citizens in third countries led the Member States to accept cooperation with EU institutions and external policy instruments for the purpose of complementing their capacity to secure the effective protection of unrepresented Union citizens abroad. The third stage started with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which conferred an unprecedented power to an international organisation (the EU) to exercise State-like consular protection functions directly with respect to the Union citizens in the world. The thesis will offer a critical assessment of two decades of application of the least-researched EU citizenship right (to consular and diplomatic protection), its nexus with other EU external relations policies and its implementation by the Member States. It will show the added value of the EU model of protecting citizens abroad for the EU citizens, the Member States and the Union, while also making policy recommendations addressing the shortcomings in its current implementation. The thesis will demonstrate that, in spite of the scholarly critiques of the incompatibility of the Union model with public international law, the international community has widely accepted.

Defence date: 10 July 2014
Examining Board: Hans-Wolfang Micklitz, European University Institute (Supervisor); Giorgio Monti, European University Institute; Geraint Howells, University of Manchester; Viktor Kreuschitz, General Court of the European Union.
This thesis examines the relationship between the law on unfair commercial practices and consumer contract law. The thesis develops the claim that Directive 2005/29/EC, on unfair commercial practices (UCPD) has had a strong impact on the content of consumer contract law, despite the declaration concerning the independence between both branches of law contained in Article 3(2) UCPD. In order to substantiate this claim, the thesis examines the implications for consumer contract law of the main components of the regulatory regime laid down by the UCPD, namely, (1) the notion of average consumer, (2) the duty to trade fairly, (3) the duty of information and (4) the remedies. By looking both at the theoretical underpinnings and at the actual operation of this regulatory regime, the thesis casts light on the way in which the UCPD has shaped consumer contract law. The thesis further shows that this is an ongoing phenomenon whose ramifications may be far-reaching, for it implies that the UCPD is powerfully fuelling the Europeanization of contract law.

Defence date: 25 July 2014
Examining Board: Professor Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz, European University Institute; Professor Giorgio Monti, European University Institute; Professor Christopher Hodges, University of Oxford; Professor Norbert Reich, University of Bremen.
In 1998 the European Union adopted a new self-standing instrument of collective enforcement - the Action for Injunction. Until then, the main focus was on the improvement of the position of the individual consumer through the adoption of substantive consumer law directives. The Injunction Directive provides for a general framework on consumer law enforcement in national and cross-border litigation. Qualified entities, public agencies and/or consumer organisations, are granted legal standing. National courts are bound to mutually respect the standing of EU wide registered qualified entities. Outside these clear-cut rules on the mutual recognition of standing, the Injunction Directive remains largely silent. The implementation into 28 Member States swiftly revealed the rather limited harmonising effect. The thesis investigates and explains how despite the legally approved diversity, the Injunction Directive contains the potential to turn diversity into convergence. The key to understanding the potential is the thesis of dualism of enforcement measures. Read together with the Annex the Injunction Directive establishes the deep interconnection between collective and individual enforcement, of substantive and procedural enforcement, of judicial and administrative enforcement. The different levels and means of enforcement should not be regarded separately but should always be looked at in their interplay, in their mutual institutional design and their mutual impact. Evidence for convergence can be found in the Invitel judgment of the ECJ and in the practice of consumer organisations via co-ordination actions across borders by which they overcome the boundaries of collective vs. individual or judicial vs. administrative enforcement. Regulation 2006/2004 re-adjusts the dualistic structure of enforcement in favour of public bodies and promotes convergence through para-legal means, through new modes of enforcement, through co-operation and co-ordination outside courts and in open interaction between administrative bodies, to which consumer organisations are admitted on approval only.

Defence date: 27 May 1992
Examining board: Prof. Marie-Chantal Boutard-Labarde (Université de Paris X-Nanterre) ; Prof. Fausto Capelli (Université de Parme) ; Prof. Peter Müller-Graff (Université de Trier) ; Prof. Jürgen Schwarze (Supervisor - EUI) ; Prof. Jean Vergès (Université de Paris I)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Award date: 25 January 2018
Supervisor: Prof. Hans-W. Micklitz
The thesis investigates the evolution of the status-related approach to consumer protection in the private law of the European Union and asks whether this traditional approach is still viable in the times of growing digitalisation. It explores, firstly, what consumer protection actually means and, secondly, whether instruments adopted for this purpose are also directed at the achievement of other policy goals. It shows that, in the most general understanding, consumer protection is linked to the position of “passive market participants”, namely persons entering into legal relationships to satisfy their needs without producing the product or service themselves. It is usually, but not invariably, limited to the standard consumer notion, displays several overarching themes such as access, information, fairness and alternative dispute resolution and remains strongly intertwined with the internal market project. The thesis further asks whether, throughout the years, tensions associated with the status-related approach to consumer protection were identified and, if so, whether and how they were addressed. It touches upon the changing normative content of the term itself and points to several areas – most notably related to the provision of services – in which the notion of a “consumer” has partially been replaced (or supplemented) with other categories. It finally asks whether digitalisation is setting an end to the status-related consumer protection and attempts to draw the possible ways forward.