Henry Farrell

The Transatlantic Data War: Europe Fights Back against the NSA – with Abraham Newman

Last October, the European Court of Justice struck down the Safe Harbor agreement, a 15-year-old transatlantic arrangement that permitted U.S. companies to transfer data, such as people’s Google-search histories, outside the EU. In invalidating the agreement, the ECJ found that the blurry relationship between private-sector data collection and national security in the United States violates the privacy rights of EU citizens whose data travel overseas. The decision leaves U.S. technology companies with extensive international operations on shaky legal ground.

Although some informed American observers anticipated the decision, most were caught flat-footed; some seemed downright bewildered. Myron Brilliant,

Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, “The Transatlantic Data War: Europe Fights Back against the NSA,” Foreign Affairs (January/February 2016).

Access the full article here.

Other Writing:

Academic Article

Constructing the International Foundations of E-Commerce: The EU-US Safe Harbor Arrangement

April 15, 2003 EU International Organization
Much recent international relations scholarship has argued that states are unable to control e-commerce, so that private actors are coming to play a dominant role. However, this body of literature fails to account for emerging “hybrid institutions,” in which states create general frameworks of rules, which are then implemented by private actors. This article examines ...
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Essay

Revolutionary Possibility (on China Mieville’s October)

September 25, 2017 Jacobin online
October, China Miéville’s new book, describes the October Revolution as a moment of possibility. In its closing pages, Miéville explains why he wrote the book, despite the revolution’s aftermath: Those who count themselves on the side of the revolution must engage with these failures and crimes. To do otherwise is to fall into apologia, special ...
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