Digitalization of societies has important ramifications for citizens and businesses. The digital landscape is rapidly changing, whereas at the same time there are growing concerns about how market access in the EU's digital market as well as fundamental rights can be sufficiently safeguarded in the shadow of 'big data' and algorithms. This timely and important book presents expert analyses of how digitalization raises questions of the future role for general principles of European Union (EU) law, including the foundational principles of the EU's fundamental economic freedoms and EU competition rules.
Examining a number of issues revolving around the internal market, the digital single market, competition law, intellectual property, data protection, democracy and the rule of law, the contributors provide deeply informed insights of the challenges as to:
- effects of the technological disruption on the doctrine of general principles;
- the resilience of general principles in the digital society;
- the need to rely on new general principles in the digital society;
- the realization of the digital single market;
- the safeguarding of fundamental rights and the rule of law.
The contributors are highly esteemed scholars from major European universities. A common theme is the need for judicial evolution of EU fundamental rights law in the digital era, alongside penetrating analyses of recent Court of Justice of the European Union case law on the impact of digitalization.
Dealing as it does with an area of European law of particular complexity and rapidly growing importance, the anthology provides insights and knowledge about the ways in which digitalization is rapidly changing EU law. Are general principles of EU law as developed in an 'analogue world' sufficiently resilient to withstand the rapid and often disruptive developments taking place in the digital marketplace? The fresh look at the concept of 'general principles' taken by the various contributors helps to clarify the actual application in EU law in areas related to the ongoing digitalization of our society. It will be greatly appreciated by practitioners, policymakers and academics active in any of the many fields of law affected by the digital revolution.
Ulf Bernitz is a professor of European Law at Stockholm University. He is also a fellow of St Hilda s College, Oxford and Director of the Stockholm/Oxford Venture in European Law. He has published an extensive amount of works in the field, as well as in civil law. He is former chair and currently a member of the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies, chair of the Swedish Association of European Law and a former President of FIDE. Xavier Groussot is professor of European Union (EU) law at Lund University and Pro Dean of the Faculty of Law. He is also a guest professor at the European College of Paris (Université Paris 2, Panthéon-Assas). His fields of research are related to EU constitutional law, free movement, procedural law and legal theory. Jaan Paju is an associate professor in Constitutional Law at the Stockholm University. He has published in the areas of European Constitutional Law, Internal Market Law and EU Social Security Law. His recent publications include The European Union and Social Security Law, (Hart Publishing 2017), Internal Coordination in Sweden, (European Journal of Social Security 2019) and On the Lack of Legal Reasoning in Case C-308/14, European Commission v. United Kingdom (Industrial Law Journal 2019). His most recent research focuses on social rights for third country nationals. Jaan is the editor of Europarättslig Tidskrift (The Nordic Journal of European Legal Studies) and joint Programme Director for the Stockholm University Master in European Economic Law. Sybe A. de Vries is a full professor of EU Single Market Law and Fundamental rights and since 2012 the Jean Monnet Chair at Utrecht University. His research and his education focus on EU Single market law, the EU s Digital Single Market and the interconnection between EU free movement law and fundamental rights. Within Utrecht University s Law School s research programme Renforce he is responsible for digitalisation. He was also the coordinator of the large-scale multidisciplinary FP7 research project bEUcitizenship on European citizenship, which was financed by the European Commission, and the academic directive of the Utrecht Centre for Global Challenges. Sybe is an honourary judge at the District Court of Rotterdam. He is also a board member of the Netherlands Association for European Law and of the editorial boards of the Journal for European and Economic law (SEW) and the Netherlands journal for Human Rights (NTM/NJCM-bulletin).
