The Council of Europe’s Framework for Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation and Ensuring Data Protection

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Year: 2024

Speaker

Irmak Erdoğan Peter earned her law license from the Istanbul Bar Association in 2012, practicing briefly in media, criminal, and administrative law.

Since 2014, she's served as a research and teaching assistant at Istanbul Bilgi University's Criminal Law and Procedures Department, later joining Galatasaray University. During her Ph.D., she conducted research at the University of Florence, Italy (Dec 2019 – Mar 2020), and as a Swiss Government Excellence Scholar at the University of Basel, Switzerland (Oct 2020-Sep 2021).

In 2022, she obtained her doctorate from Galatasaray University with a thesis on "Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Criminal Justice," specializing in criminal law, data protection, criminal profiling, and risk assessment technologies.

Topic

Dr. Irmak Erdoğan-Peter, affiliated with KU Leuven's Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP), provides an insightful exploration of data protection frameworks beyond the EU, focusing on the Council of Europe's key agreements. She starts with the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, an initiative by the Council of Europe established in 2001. This convention harmonizes national laws on cybercrime and promotes international cooperation. While it defines nine cybercrime offenses, it lacks coverage for crimes like identity theft and cyberstalking. The convention also sets forth procedural rules for investigating cybercrimes and lays out guidelines for mutual legal assistance.

Building upon this, Dr. Erdoğan-Peter discusses the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention, which was ratified in 2022. This protocol aims to enhance cross-border access to electronic evidence, allowing for direct requests to domain registrars and online service providers. However, concerns arise as the protocol is open to accession by states with varying data protection standards, potentially compromising consistency and collaboration between data protection authorities.

Lastly, she touches upon Convention 108+, the first binding international agreement by the Council of Europe on personal data protection, adopted in 1981 and updated in 2018. This convention ensures protection for all individuals, irrespective of...