EU law
After Bara: All your (Data)base are belong to us
Irish Government database plans may need revision after the CJEU’s Bara ruling.
After Schrems hearing, Government scraps Cloud Computing plan
Two days after the EU Commission admits to Europe’s top court that they’re not assured of the security of EU citizens’ data when it’s transferred to the US, Ireland’s government scraps their cloud computing plan. I predicted the problems EU data protection law posed for Cloud Computing in this article for the Irish Times from 2009.
CJEU Judgement: Google -v- AEPD and the rise of EU privacy law
The Court of Justice of the European Union is the highest court in the EU. This year has seen a landmark set of judgments from the court around issues of Privacy and, more broadly, the assertion of the Charter of Fundamental Rights as a significant Human Rights document. The most significant of these is, of course, the Digital Rights Ireland case in which we act for the Plaintiff. But today saw another assertion of the privacy rights of the individual, with […]
Digital Rights Ireland: ECJ Judgment striking down Data Retention
The ECJ judgement on Digital Rights Ireland’s challenge to the EU’s data retention regime.
Air Travel Accidents
Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 (as amended by Regulation (EC) No 889/2002) requires air carriers in the EU to give the following summary of a passenger’s rights on the air ticket. “Air carrier liability for passengers and their baggage This information notice summarises the liability rules applied by Community air carriers as required by Community legislation and the Montreal Convention. Compensation in the case of death or injury There are no financial limits to the liability for passenger injury or death. […]
Irish Water; tears ahead?
I think “public procurement” is the ruling idea currently in the Irish Water revelations. The company is changing the description of the subject of the contracts which it first said were “consultancy” contracts. Now, it says they are “provision of services” contracts. In either event, those contracts are, clearly, of great value and easily qualify for mandatory use of public procurement procedures. It is illegal to award contracts without using the proper and appropriate public procurement procedures. The Department of […]
The Running of Time
Our legal system contains the idea that time runs. What is meant by this, is that an event triggering a cause of action is the beginning of a window of opportunity to litigate a claim. By implication, the window has an end point as well as a start point. A plaintiff cannot successfully commence litigation until the triggering event (the suffering of a loss, usually) and cannot successfully commence litigation after the expiration of the time allocated by the Statute […]
Judging judges
There are two big ideas current in modern law. One is expressed in the law of the EU; it is the freedom to do business. The other is the law generated in response to the Second World War; it is the law of human rights. There has been an effort to bring them together (and an effort to keep them apart). The effort to bring them together is in the Treaty of European Union and the Charter of Fundamental Rights […]
Looking East
Trenitalia is Italy’s national train system. Being national, it is open to political interference in the form of over-manning. Other things being equal, this is good for passengers and employees. Ireland can have nothing to say about this situation. Irish citizens, likewise, must confine their reflections on Italian train travel to their memoirs. The USA also has a bloated and inflated industry; its prison system. There are 758 prisoners per 100,000 of population there. This is not the stuff for […]
The Actio Popularis, Aarhus Convention and class actions in Ireland
Ireland currently has a limited form of class action. It is the “actio popularis”. It is not like the US form of class action; it is not of direct benefit to individual members of the public. They get the benefit when they are in the class that benefits from the judgment. They do not simply lodge their claim for compensation, say. The Irish courts have accepted “actio popularis” claims in only one such proceedings; Digital Rights Ireland Ltd. v The […]