Latest on Spanish Journals (II)
The last issue of La Ley. Unión Europea (July 2014) has also been released this month. Prof. P. de Miguel Asensio (Universidad Complutense of Madrid) is the author of the first contribution, entitled “El tratamiento de datos personales por buscadores de Internet tras la sentencia Google Spain del Tribunal de Justicia”.
Summary: In the light of the most recent case law of the ECJ, the territorial scope of application of the EU data protection law is discussed, with a special focus on the applicability of EU legislation to Google Inc., as search engine provider. Additionally, the position of the undertaking managing a search engine as data controller, the obligations of the search engine in this respect as well the relationship with the position of the pusblishers of websites are addressed. Finally, the scope of the right of erasure and its consequences on the activities of search engines are also discussed.
Directly related to Prof. de Miguel’s paper is Dr. M. López García’s “Derecho a la información y derecho al olvido al internet”, published a little bit later (under Tribuna) in the same issue.
Summary: Internet is major change in society. Everything we do is published in the network. If you’re not on the Internet doesn’t exist. But it has important legal consequences especially regarding the right to privacy and protection of personal data, specifically the right to control the privacy of each person and decide that we want you to know or want you to forget about us. This problem has a different solution in each country. Common response is required for legal certainty.
The second main article, written by Prof. J. García López (also from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid) and entitled “El acuerdo de asociación transatlántico sobre comercio e inversiones: aproximación desde el Derecho del comercio internacional”, focuses on the TTIP:
Summary: The USA and the EU started one year ago their negotiations for the conclusion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In this paper we propose an approach from the point of view of International Trade Law. The TTIP will have to satisfy the conditions of both art XXIV GATT and art V Gats. This will produce the abolition of tariff and non-tariff barriers for the transatlantic trade, inducing a well-known effect of trade creation. On the other side, third countries like Mexico and Turkey will suffer as a consequence of the trade diversion caused by the rules of origin of the TTIP. To conclude, we will make reference to the new areas of negotiation beyond goods and services.
A comment on the ECJ decision to the aff. C-478/2012, Maletic, is provided by J.I. Paredes Pérez (Centro Europeo del Consumidor en España; University of Alcalá)
Summary: The subject of the controversy of the judgment places us within the territorial scope of protection forums included in Regulation No. 44/2001 for contracts held by consumers in order to assess the assumptions of internationality that justify their application. In this context, the judgment is of great significance, since in the appreciation of the international element of the litigious situation, the Court of Justice of the European Union does not use so much criteria of spatial type, characteristic of private international law as substantive criteria that arise from material logic. In particular, it appreciates the international nature of a consumption contract apparently domestic, taking into account intrinsic aspects of the contractual relationship, as it turns out the root cause of the matter related to connected contracts.
A selection of European case law and some news of juridical -but also of general- interest are delivered in the final part of the journal.