Policy Observatory
On 16 September 2014, the Romanian Constitutional Court declared the law on registering prepay sim card users and public Wi-Fi users unconstitutional. After being adopted in an emergency procedure, several NGOs put pressure on decision makers (including in a letter addressed to the President) to declare this law unconstitutional signaling the serious infringements on private life. The law was brought to the Constitutional Court by the Ombudsman and ApTI together with AADOR-CH intervened via an amicus curiae. in the last 3 years, this law is the 4th attempt to adopt such legislation in Romania.
The Council of Europe commissioned the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law a comparative study in respect of filtering, blocking and take-down of illegal content on the Internet in the 47 member States of the Organisation. The study describes and assesses the legal framework but also the relevant case-law and practice in the field. It is divided in two main parts: country reports and comparative considerations.
Find the complete study for download here
Discussion has been focusing on the relationship between the new proposed directive and the existing body of legislation and the economic/legal rationale of the various initiatives. What however appears to have been left partly out of the debate is what relationship the DSM Directive has and will have with the existing body of case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).