Data at the Boundaries of (European) Law: A First Cut

This chapter introduces the concept of boundaries in relation to law and automation as the common thread of the volume. It explores the ways in which the law confronts several shifting boundaries—territorial, disciplinary, material, institutional, conceptual—within the scope of data-driven Europe. More broadly, starting from the GDPR as an example of the so-called ‘Brussels effect’, the chapter reflects upon the data strategy of the EU in the global context, both as it now is and as planned. This chapter, like the book, adopts an ‘intermezzo’ approach and focuses in a selective fashion on the potential and challenges of data-driven law, path dependencies created by the GDPR, algorithmic transparency, personal data-sharing in the context of EU interoperable information systems as well as the practice of accountability within some specific areas of data-led security.