Transborder Data Flow Regulation and Data Privacy Law

Christopher Kuner’s fascinating work on transborder data flows and data privacy law is an absolute must-read for anybody interested in the challenges of data protection, internet regulation, and legal pluralism in the twenty-first century more generally. The book is organized into eight well-structured and easily accessible chapters: Background and Introduction; International Regulation of Transborder Data Flows; Typology of Regulatory Approaches; National, Private Sector, and Technological Approaches; Analysis of Underlying Policies; Applicable Law, Extraterritoriality, and Transborder Data Flows; Compliance and Enforcement; A Global Regulatory Framework for Transborder Data Flows; as well as a comprehensive appendix of data protection and privacy law instruments currently regulating transborder data flows around the world. Since the book was only published in 2013, it is one of the most up-to-date scholarly assessments of the current state and possible future of the increasingly important issue of global transborder data flow regulation. The book is equally useful for data protection professionals as well as novices in the field. Christopher Kuner writes in a clear and comprehensible manner that makes the book not only an interesting but also thoroughly enjoyable read. I cannot overstate of how much use his illuminating work has been to my studies and personal interest in the field.

Christopher Kuner’s latest book is a must-have item not only in any privacy lawyer’s library but also on his or her desk. As one might expect from Kuner’s background, the book is as useful and practical as it is deep and thought-provoking. It recognizes that as much as data protection is considered to be a field of market regulation, it also impacts fundamental, indeed philosophical, dilemmas in human rights law, globalization and our response to the shape-shifting chimera of the Internet. It is a foray into private international law, where Kuner explores the challenges and practical intricacies of national regulation in a globalized environment. As Peter Hustinx writes in the book’s foreword, it is “an inconvenient truth that national borders still play a key role in legal regulations, although data flows may cross those same borders a million times every second.” For a complete review see the Stanford CIS site: [...]

This is a very broad book in its geographical reach, covering a variety of jurisdictions. It really is transborder. This is very useful in certain situations, but this book should not be mistaken for (nor does it claim to be) something which allows you to pick a country and find out all about the data protection law within that country alone. What this does offer is a practical resource which can be consulted in a variety of transactional or contentious situations so that a sensible/workable approach to data protection can be considered.