Publications by the CDSL
All of the CDSL members publish actively within the CDSL academic fields of interest. A list of publications for each member can be found at the respective individual pages. Anyone interested is also welcome to visit VUB's online Research Explorer service (search possible, among others, by researcher's name or research topic/keyowrds), which is automaticall updated and includes the latest updates.
The CDSL aims, to the greatest extent possible, to provide its publications under an open access policy.
PhD supervision
CDSL offers supervision to PhD projects within any of its academic fields of interest.
For more information please contact us.
Featured books
The new major commentary on the GDPR is written by leading European lawyers who have extensively analysed the European and transnational academic discourse. The commentaries take into account the existing approaches to interpretation at national level, place them in a European legal environment and thus impress with new arguments that also offer new possibilities in contentious proceedings.
The advantages at a glance
• New European law argumentation patterns for national interpretation and application practice
• European law classification of the Member States' scope for action, especially the scope of application of the GDPR
• Focus on current topics:
• - International data transfer and data processing, also in cloud computing
• - Right to be forgotten
• - One-Stop-Shop
• - Sanctions and supervisory measures
• - Profiling
• - Pseudonymisation and anonymisation
• - Consent and other authorisations for personal data processing by companies
• - Data protection audit and certification
With contributions by
Jan Philipp Albrecht | Marco Almada | Jens Ambrock | Sebastian Bretthauer | Laura Carmichael | Emma Cradock | Alexander Dix | Stefan Drewes | Jos Dumortier | Domingos Farinho | Pieter Gryffroy | Paul De Hert | Gerrit Hornung | András Jóri | Irene Kamara | Moritz Karg | Juliano Maranhão | Hans-W. Micklitz | Evangelia Papadaki | Vagelis Papakonstantinou | Cristina Pauner Chulvi | Artemi Rallo Lombarte | Judith Rauhofer | Philipp Richter | Alexander Roßnagel | Giovanni Sartor | Burkhard Schafer | Peter Schantz | Stephanie Schiedermair | Achim Seifert | Spiros Simitis | Eva Souhrada-Kirchmayer | Indra Spiecker genannt Döhmann | Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon | Olivia Tambou | Niko Tsakalakis | Jorge Viguri Cordero
EU regulatory initiatives concerning technology-related topics have spiked over the past few years. On the basis of its Priorities Programme, which is focused on making Europe ‘Fit for the Digital Age’, the European Commission has been busily releasing new texts aimed at regulating a number of technology topics, including data uses, online platforms, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
This book identifies three phenomena which are common to all EU digital technologies-relevant regulatory initiatives: act-ification, GDPR mimesis, and regulatory brutality. These three phenomena serve as indicators or early signs of a new European technology law-making paradigm that now seems ready to emerge. They divulge new-found confidence on the part of the EU digital technologies legislator, who has now asserted for itself the right to form policy options and create new rules in the field for all of Europe.
Bringing together an analysis of the regulatory initiatives for the management of technology topics in the EU for the first time, this book will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and practitioners, sparking academic and policymaking interest and discussion.
Book series
The regulation of digital technologies
Digital technologies increasingly permeate all aspects of our lives, affecting the way we live and work together. Their regulation, however, is unlike the regulation of any other technology developed so far. Exactly because of their permeating effect, digital technologies pose challenges that go well beyond their use and exploitation, having developed into a social, political and financial (rather than purely technological) phenomenon. This series, that was initiated in collaboration with Nomos in 2024, aims to examine the various issues posed by the legislators' attempt to regulate digital technologies in Europe and internationally.
- Volume 1
The work deals with Digital Commons. These are a case of the new organizational forms developed in the realm of digital economy and fall under the notion of “Network Enterprise”, substituting the classical hierarchical forms of firms with horizontal cooperation between independent agents.
They are hybrid forms of organization, which reject both markets and hierarchies, as the two mainstream organizational modes of conventional economics. They are based on individual autonomy combined with egalitarian cooperative mechanisms, trying to reap the best of the organizational structure of firms without sacrificing individual autonomy.
Featured papers
- Codes of conduct in German employment relationships - A measure to adequately implementing compliance and data protection? Wasser D & Papakonstantinou V, European Business Law Review, Volume 35, Issue 2 (2024),
- A preliminary study on artificial intelligence oracles and smart contracts: A legal approach to the interaction of two novel technological breakthroughs, Papadouli V & Papakonstantinou V, Computer Law & Security Review, Volume 51, November 2023 (open access),
- Cybersecurity as praxis and as a state: The EU law path towards acknowledgement of a new right to cybersecurity? Papakonstantinou V, Computer Law & Security Review, Volume 44, April 2022, (open access)
- Cyber-insurance in EU policy-making: Regulatory options, the market's challenges and the US example, Markopoulou D, Computer Law & Security Review, Volume 43, November 2021,
- Digitalisation of water services and the water sector cyber threat landscape: Is the EU regulatory framework adequate? (130.12 KB) "pdf" Markopoulou D/Papakonstantinou V, Journal of Water Law, Volume 27, Issue 4.
- The regulatory framework for the protection of Critical Infrastructures against cyber threats: Identifying shortcomings and addressing future challenges; The case of the healthsector in particular, Markopoulou D/Papakonstantinou V, Computer Law & Security Review, Volume 41, July 2021, (open access)
- The new EU cybersecurity framework: The NIS Directive, ENISA's role and the General Data Protection Regulation, Markopoulou D/Papakonstantinou V/de Hert P, Computer Law & Security Review 35.6, November 2019 (open access)
- Big data analytics in electronic communications: A reality in need of granular regulation (even if this includes an interim period of no regulation at all), Papakonstantinou V/de Hert P, Computer Law & Security Review, April 2020
- EU sanctions against cyber-attacks and defense rights: Wanna Cry? Dumortier Franck, Papakonstantinou Vagelis, De Hert Paul, European Law Blog, 28 September 2020
The CDSL Working Paper Series
CDSL Working Papers have been drafted by CDSL researchers and are made available via the CDSL website in order to promote academic exchange and discussion. They do not warrant fitness for any purpose and their contents should be treated at all times as work in progress.
- Five years after 2018, the annus mirabilis for EU data protection: Where we stand and the outlook ahead, Papakonstantinou V, CDSL Working Paper 8/2024 (426.01 KB) "pdf",
- Data privacy law as a new field of law, Papakonstantinou V, CDSL Working Paper 7/2024 (683.21 KB) "pdf",
- Franck Dumortier, L’obligation de sécurité des données personnelles : vers un standard de «diligence digitale»?, CDSL Working Paper 3/2021 (643.44 KB) "pdf",
- Paul de Hert and Vagelis Papakonstantinou, Framing Big Data in the Council of Europe and the EU data protection law systems: Adding "should" to "must" via soft law to address more than only individual harms, CDSL Working Paper 2/2020, download (728.49 KB) "pdf"
- Vagelis Papakonstantinou and Paul de Hert, Big Data Analytics in Electronic Communications: A Reality in need of Granular Regulation (even if this includes an interim period of no regulation at all), CDSL Working Paper 1/2019, download (519.57 KB) "pdf"
CDSL blog posts
- Dismissing Data Protection Officers in Germany - a matter of good cause and major difficulties for employers! Wasser D & Maarouf-Wasser N, EU Law Live, 9 March 2023,
- Whistleblowing Directive not yet transposed: obligation for corporations to implement "whistleblowing" or "so what about it"? Daniel Wasser & Vagelis Papakonstantinou, EU Law Live (Weekend Edition), 25 June 2022,
- EU lawmaking in the Artificial Intelligent Age: Act-ification, GDPR mimesis, and regulatory brutality, European Law Blog, 8 July 2021,
- China's draft privacy bill: A pragmatic, but yet-to-be improved approach? IAPP Privacy Tracker, 4 February 2021,
- Post GDPR EU laws and their GDPR mimesis. DGA, DSA, DMA and the EU regulation of AI, European Law Blog, 1 April 2021,
- The “act-ification” of EU law: The (long-overdue) move towards “eponymous” EU legislation, European Law Blog, European Law Blog, 26 January 2021,
- Refusing to award legal personality to AI: Why the European Parliament got it wrong, European Law Blog, 25 November 2020,
- EU sanctions against cyber-attacks and defense rights: Wanna Cry? European Law Blog, 28 September 2020.