The Emergence of Personal Data Protection as a Fundamental Right of the EU

Abstract

The book studies the emergence of the right to the protection of personal data as a fundamental right in the law of the European Union (EU). It is the fruit of a double perplexity: it was born of the curiosity roused by the surfacing of a new fundamental right inside the EU legal system, but also of a feeling of puzzlement in face of the persistently limited recognition of the right’s advent by the literature, as well as by the judiciary responsible for its interpretation and application,1 and by those involved in discussing the future of the legal framework supposed to uphold it. This introductory chapter offers a series of preliminary reflections on the nature of the inquiry. It puts forward the research subject, renders explicit some of the research premises, and describes the research’s outline and sources.