On The Application Of Law In Cross-border Infringement Disputes Of Personal Data Rights

The right of personal data is a legal right owned by a natural person that permits the latter to control all the data or information that could be used to identify the said individual’s identity.As the Internet gradually takes over all the aspects of our life in modern society,personal data could be leaked or illegally acquired more easily,which places their owners’ right of personal data in a more vulnerable situation.Given the role of the Internet in the aforementioned sort of case and the fact that Internet can be reached by people from almost everywhere in the world,the number of tort cases regarding the right of personal data in a transboundary context is increasing.However,current study in personal data scarcely pays attention to the transboundary tort of the right of personal data,not to mention the applicable law to the latter.Being divided into four parts,this thesis starts from clarifying the concept of personal data and the legal meaning of the right of personal data,which leads to a further discussion on the boundary between the right of personal data and its analogues.Then the first part of the thesis moves on to clarify the general regulation system and its latest update of the right of personal data in different countries and regions,namely the European Union,the United States of America,the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China.The second part of this thesis mainly deals with the mere problem of the applicable law in transboundary tort disputes of the right of personal data.To begin with,this part analyzes the general standard of “transboundary” on the basis of the theory of foreign-related nature,which is supported by precedents and regulations.Then the problem of the recognition of a transboundary tort of the right of personal data case is discussed through an overview of the regulations and cases of the European Union and China.Secondly,conventional theories of connecting factors and their application in the said transboundary cases are briefly touched.Thirdly,two important working documents respectively published by the Institute of International law and the International law Association relating to the applicable law in the transboundary tort cases of personal data are thoroughly analyzed,followed by a brief summary commenting on the aforementioned documents.The third part is about the problem of concurrence between tort liability and contractual liability.In this part,two legal instruments of the European Union with potential possibility of conflicting would be used as an example to clarify the reason behind this phenomenon,and a decision made by the Court of Justice of the European Union will be invoked to help come up with a solution to the problem of applicable law in these cases.The last part of the thesis serves as a review of the whole article,and several pieces of advice on the problem of applicable law are proposed after a summary of the main points of the thesis.