The external dimension of the European rule of law in the digital age: an analysis through the lens of the ECJ case-law on data transfer

The rule of law, recognized as one of the founding values of the EU, is continuously facing new challenges, one of the most complex being the safeguard of privacy and data protection in a globalized and digital world. The European legislation, strengthened by a long and coherent ECJ case-law, has affirmed and transposed the rule of law principles in the specific data protection field. In this context, the EU is not only acting in its “internal dimension”, it is also trying to promote and “expand” the EU’s high data protection standards in its relations with third countries. This paper, through the analysis of the data-transfer legislative discipline and the landmark ECJ judgments (Schrems and Opinion 1/15), aims to evaluate the efficacy of the instruments established by the GDPR (as well as by the previous Directive 95/46/EC), focusing in particular on the adequacy decisions adopted by the Commission. Ultimately, the present work addresses the issue of the effectiveness of the EU data-transfer discipline and its capacity to guarantee the continuity of the rule of law principles outside the EU.