FOREWARD
During the last five years, a combination of legal
and economic forces have re-invigorated the debate over the protection of
personal information across borders.
By the end of the 1990s, the Internet and electronic commerce held great
promise for global economic growth and deepened the trend toward transborder
data flows. At the same
time, divergent legal protection for personal information threatened to disrupt
those data flows.
In 1998, the European UnionÕs Directive 95/46/EC
requiring the harmonization of data privacy law within the Member States
entered into force. The EU
Directive took a comprehensive legal approach to the protection of data privacy
and required Member States to block data flows to countries that did not
ÒadequatelyÓ protect personal data.
Most European attention initially focussed on the
United States where the protection of data privacy followed a weaker approach
with narrow sectoral laws and a reliance on self-regulation. Global businesses were very
concerned about potential disruptions to their transfers of personal
information to the United States.
Yet, the European Union could not ignore the rest of the world and could
not discriminate against US trading partners. However, the status of data protection in many parts
of the world, and especially in Latin American, was largely unknown within
Europe and the upper part of North America.
Transmision internacional de datos personales y
proteccion de la privacidad , thus, began as a brilliant
thesis by an outstanding young Argentinian scholar-lawyer for the Graduate
Program at Fordham University School of Law. The thesis started as an exploration of privacy issues
for data transfers from Europe to Latin America. In that earlier work, Dr. Pablo Palazzi raised so many
excellent points that he simply had to write the book! This result is now a pathbreaking
analysis of the emergence of Latin American data protection law and
international data flows.
Dr. Palazzi shows that Latin America has chosen to
follow the European approach to data privacy rather than the alternative ad hoc
sectoral approach found in the United States. He carefully traces the origins and historical context for
this transplantation of data protection in Latin America. He then offers a cogent treatment of
the various protection mechanisms to reassure the European Union of the level
of protection in Latin America, particularly in Argentina and Chile. For many, Dr. PalazziÕs discussion
of the new Argentinian law and implementing regulation will also be of practical
importance. But, for those outside
Argentina, the discussion gives unprecedented insight into one of the first
Latin American enactments of data privacy legislation. In addition to the analysis of
these emerging laws, the book also examines the utility of a Safe Harbor
arrangement for Latin American countries as well as the enforceability of
standard contracts. Collectively,
Dr. PalazziÕs discussion will help preserve international data flows to the
region and support the economic revival of Argentina.
In short, Transmision internacional de datos
personales y proteccion de la privacidad makes a vitally important contribution to the field of
data privacy law and is essential reading for anyone involved in international
data transfers with Latin America.
Indeed, the study has already generated great interest among European
and American policy makers and is sure to have a significant impact on the
international debate.
Joel R. Reidenberg
Professor of Law
Fordham University
School of Law, New York, NY (USA)