Remembering and Forgetting – Protecting Privacy Rights in the Digital Age

Abstract

This article interrogates the nature and scope of the right to erasure through the lens of the CJEU’s decision in Google Spain/Google Inc v AEPD/González. It examines the reasoning adopted by the Advocate-General and the CJEU in this case as a means of assessing the interpretative techniques used by lawyers and decision-makers to resolve the normative conflicts that arise in privacy/expression disputes. It harnesses Koskenniemi’s work on the structure of legal argumentation for the purpose of analysing rights reasoning in the context of EU Data Protection law. It also explores the significance of the symbiotic relationship between privacy rights and expression rights with a view to providing the basis for achieving meaningful normative co-ordination in concrete cases.

Keywords: Data Protection, Privacy, EU Law, Koskenniemi, Google Spain

JEL Classification: K33, K39