Digital Trade and Data Privacy: Cross-border Flows of Personal Data between Data Protection and Data Protectionism

This monograph provides a comprehensive examination of the intricate legal challenges arising at the intersection of digital trade and data privacy. It argues in favour of an integrated approach to understanding the dynamic interaction between digital trade and data privacy, with the aim of building a bridge between these two fields of law. Cross-border data flows are paramount for the operational efficiency and productivity of companies across diverse industries. The ongoing economic transformation, characterized by the perception of data as both a commodity and currency, exacerbates the tension between the push for economic liberalization of cross-border transfers of personal data under a trade rationale and the limitations imposed on such transfers for non-economic reasons. Given that the regulation of cross-border personal data transfers is profoundly influenced by both international trade law and national data privacy laws, a complex relationship has developed between the normative values that underpin these legal frameworks. This publication centers on the resulting interdependence of digital trade and data privacy in a global digital economy. It provides a contribution to the debate on a (re)contextualisation of trade law against the background of the advent of digital trade.