International Agreements, Data Protection, and EU Fundamental Rights on the International Stage: Opinion 1/15 (EU-Canada PNR) of the Court of Justice of the EU

Abstract

In Opinion 1/15, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union applied the fundamental right of data protection to a pending international agreement of the EU. In its first ruling on the compatibility of an international agreement with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Court found that a draft agreement between the EU and Canada for the transfer of airline passenger name record data could not be concluded in its current form, since it was adopted under the wrong legal basis and several of its provisions were incompatible with fundamental rights. This annotation deals with a number of important issues that the Opinion raises, in particular the legal basis for international agreements on data sharing; its implications for the fundamental rights to data protection and privacy; the role that international law played in the Opinion; the use of international agreements and adequacy decisions for data transfers; how the Court dealt with issues of foreign law; and the impact the Opinion may have on the EU’s conclusion of international agreements in the future.

Keywords: Data Protection, EU Court of Justice, PNR, Canada, EU Law