TILT seminar Teresa Alegra Quintel

BIO
Teresa Quintel is a PhD Candidate at the University of Luxembourg and Uppsala University since November 2016. In her PhD research, Teresa addresses the applicability of EU data protection law to third country nationals, with a particular focus on Directive (EU) 2016/680. Apart from her research and teaching activities, Teresa has published on various topics in the context of data protection and privacy legislation, with a particular focus on the area of migration and asylum. Teresa holds a master’s degree in political science and a LL.M. in European Law. Previously, she worked in the private sector in Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden.

Abstract
In May 2018, the EU Data Protection Reform entered into force and received worldwide attention, primarily because of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Besides the GDPR, Directive (EU)2016/680, the so-called Law Enforcement Directive (LED), entered into force, albeit with far less fanfare. This is regrettable, as the LED is too important to be neglected. The Directive applies to processing of person data in the context of police and criminal justice, namely when competent law enforcement authorities process personal data for the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences.

However, since the LED is a minimum harmonization instrument, Member States had a certain leeway when transposing it into their national laws. For instance, definitions and interpretation may differ in the national transposition acts, which may have an impact on the LED’s scope of application and consequently lead to grey zones as regards the delineation between GDPR and Directive. This may entail repercussions for data subject rights, as the latter may be restricted more flexibly under the Directive and because transparency obligations are much weaker than under the GDPR.

The seminar will briefly introduce the Law Enforcement Directive and give two examples as regard the abovementioned grey zones. The first example will demonstrate how the unclear delineation between the GDPR and the LED may lead to unfair processing in the area of migration, where the wrong application of the Directive may result to an unjustified limitation of data subject rights. The second example will focus on Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and inquire whether the LED may or even should be applicable when processing by such FIUs is carried out for law enforcement purposes.