DATA PROTECTION EXPERT INSIGHTS

Did the implementation of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 represent a fundamental shift in the balance of power between the state and the citizen?

In this paper, they progressed the argument that this is a constitutional right, due to its political nature and its role in protection of democracy.  To support that proposition, they proposed four “theoretical” justifications by which to judge the necessity of legislation to meet the requirements of real constitutional effect. These being:

• Political-Democratic Justification
• The Instrumental Justification
• The Proprietary Justification
• The Oversight Justification—Transparency

The report uses these four tests to analyse the report question. The report concludes that the FOIA did meet represent a fundamental shift to the public.

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Has the legal right to access personal data been diluted by the English and Welsh courts?

A critical analysis of the English and Welsh Courts application of the right to access in the 1984 and 1998 Data Protection Acts, set alongside the expectations of the law makers, to establish whether the Courts have diluted the intention of the executive.

This report considers the meaning of the legal right to access personal data, hereafter known as, the right of access, from a Data Controller [1].  The report will analyse the intention of the lawmakers in the development of the right.  The analysis will use the Data Protection Act 1984 [2] as a starting point (the 1984 Act), and the 1998 Data Protection Act (the 1998 Act) [3] as the concluding legislative reference on the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation [4] (the GDPR) in 2018.

Find out more and read the paper here.