The construction of a European digital citizenship in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU

Abstract

The case law of the Court of Justice on the prohibition of general (meta)data retention and on the right to be forgotten, has formed the cradle for a new status protecting and empowering the data subject. Built upon a distinctive equilibrium of values and linked to the territory of the Union, the new status can be described as an embryonic European digital citizenship. The article explores the construction of the new status orchestrated by the Court of Justice in close interplay with national courts (especially apex courts) and the EU legislature. It identifies various ways in which the case law of the ECJ on digital rights is similar to the case law on Union citizenship. The emerging status then opens up a new vista of how citizenship can be understood and developed in the EU legal order beyond the framework of Articles 20 and 21 TFEU, in order to address the challenges of an increasingly digitized society. European digital citizenship, Court of Justice, prohibition of general (meta)data retention, right to be forgotten, data subject, data protection, digital rights, Union citizenship, digitized society