Month: December 2021

Holiday break

On By revistaunioIn UncategorizedLeave a comment 
By Editorial Board
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Dear readers,

We will be taking a short 1-week break for holidays. We will resume our regular publishing schedule on 3 January 2022.

In the meantime, we are always open to receiving new academic contributions from our readers. If you have an innovative, dynamic, thoughtful piece that you believe would fit in this blog, feel free to send it to us at: unio.cedu@direito.uminho.pt.

If you would like to catch up on some reading on EU matters please check our news, comments, essays, reviews, and case law of the ECJ sections. Do not forget to subscribe to the blog by filling your email on the “FOLLOW THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF UNIO” section in the sidebar so you can be updated on all our latest posts.


Pictures credits: cocoparisienne

The national judge as judge of the Union (a view of the Judges’ Forum 2021 – CJEU)

On By officialblogunioIn EssaysLeave a comment 

Irene das Neves (Appeal Court Judge of the Northern Administrative Central Court - Tax Litigation Section), Dora Lucas Neto (Appeal Court Judge of the Southern Administrative Central Court - Administrative Litigation Section), and Isabel Silva (Judge of the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Braga - Tax Litigation)
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The reference for a preliminary ruling, provided for in Article 19(3)(b) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), is a fundamental mechanism of EU law.[1] It is an “incident” within national proceedings that obliges the national judge to stay the proceedings because it is faced with the need to obtain a “preliminary” ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the interpretation of EU law or the validity of the acts of its bodies, institutions or agencies, with a view to the proper administration of justice within the EU. To that extent, the national courts playing the role of guardians of EU law, ensuring the effective and homogenous application of the law, and seeking to avoid divergent interpretations by the various courts of the Member States.

It was on this theme of the reference, focused on the reference for the interpretation of EU law, that the President of the CJEU, Koen Lenaerts, opened the 2021 Judges’ Forum, which was held at the CJEU from 21 to 23 November and brought together judges from the courts of first instance and the appeal courts of the Member States, recalling that the reference for a preliminary ruling is an instrument of judicial cooperation by means of which the national judge and the EU judge are called upon, within the scope of their respective powers, to contribute to a decision ensuring the uniform application of EU law by the Member States.

Continue reading “The national judge as judge of the Union (a view of the Judges’ Forum 2021 – CJEU)” →

Blockchain: a small introduction and a legal perspective

On By officialblogunioIn CommentsLeave a comment 
Catarina Ferreira (Master’s student in European Union Law at the School of Law of the University of Minho)
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1. The blockchain technology

Blockchain is commonly known as the underlying technology used in Bitcoin. This “new” and revolutionary technology, whose roots are ancient, has been introduced (as we know it) in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoins’ white paper. In the white paper, Nakamoto presented a decentralized payment model based on cryptography and using blockchain technology. This idea would allow a move forward from the traditional model, based on trust and relying on an impartial third, and achieving currency decentralization (being possible to perform direct transactions between two parts).

It cannot be denied that blockchain is a new paradigm, a new information technology with tiered technical levels and multiple applications for any form of asset[1], going beyond the financial sector. Nowadays, blockchain’s impacts are being compared to the ones that followed the development of the Internet. So, understanding what is blockchain and the ideology behind it, is a requirement for those who want to apply the law without damaging the technology.

Before clarifying what blockchain is, it should be noticed that since Bitcoin’s blockchain many others have arisen. Nonetheless, there are commonalities between all blockchains, and in this work, we’ll be discussing all those commonalities and not a specific blockchain. 

Continue reading “Blockchain: a small introduction and a legal perspective” →

Evaluating the legal admissibility of data transfers from the EU to the USA

On By officialblogunioIn EssaysLeave a comment 
Alessandra Silveira (Editor) and João Marques (Lawyer, former member of Portuguese Data Protection Supervisory Authority)
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1. The feud between Maximillian Schrems and the Irish Data Protection Supervisory Authority (Data Protection Commission – DPC), with Facebook always lingering in, has been detrimental to frame the legality of data flows from the European Union (EU) to the United States of America (USA), but also to any third country that replicates the shortcomings relating to the inexistence of a “level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the European Union (…), read in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union” [in the words of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)].[1]

2. The sole action of one man has brought down two different and sequential “transfer tools”, created in tandem by both the European Commission (EC) and the United States’ Government. In case C-362/14 the CJEU declared the Safe Harbour decision (Commission Decision 2000/520/EC of 26 July 2000) invalid, as the Court found that the USA’s legislation did not offer an essentially equivalent level of protection to that of the EU, also reminding all Data Protection Supervisory Authorities that their work is never done and that it is, in fact, upon their shoulders the task and the responsibility to constantly monitor if any given third country complies and remains compliant with the need to offer such an equivalency.

Continue reading “Evaluating the legal admissibility of data transfers from the EU to the USA” →

Editorial of December 2021

On By officialblogunioIn Editorials1 Comment 
By Alessandra Silveira (Editor)
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AI systems and automated inferences – on the protection of inferred personal data

On 23 November 2021 the European Commission published the consultation results on a set of digital rights and principles to promote and uphold EU values in the digital space – which ran between 12 May and 6 September 2021.[1] This public consultation on digital principles is a key deliverable of the preparatory work for the upcoming “Declaration on digital rights and principles for the Digital Decade”, which European Commission will announce by the end of 2021. The consultation invited all interested people to share their views on the formulation of digital principles in 9 areas: i) universal access to internet services; ii) universal digital education and skills for people to take an active part in society and in democratic processes; iii) accessible and human-centric digital public services and administration; iv) access to digital health services; v) an open, secure and trusted online environment; vi) protecting and empowering children and young people in the online space; vii) a European digital identity; viii) access to digital devices, systems and services that respect the climate and environment; ix) ethical principles for human-centric algorithms.  

Continue reading “Editorial of December 2021” →