Critical Reflections on the EU’s Data Protection Regime: GDPR in the Machine (Hart Studies in Information Law and Regulation) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1509977880 ISBN 13: 9781509977888

Publisher: Hart Publishing (UK), 2026

Synopsis

This book brings together leading academics working on data protection law in the EU to analyse the most notable developments, and the most significant changes, which have occurred during the first 5 years of the GDPR.

The book includes contributions analysing the efficacy of the Regulation’s consent-based model, the struggle to regulate AdTech using the provisions of the GDPR, the controversy surrounding US-EU data sharing and the interaction of the Regulation with EU Fundamental Rights and other secondary laws regulating data.

The book is unique in setting out to record a period of rapid development – and significant challenge – for EU law through its examination of these episodes in the life of the Regulation in a single text. Each chapter examines the changes introduced by the GDPR, analyses the effect of the Regulation in practice, and maps what the next 5 years holds for one of the world’s most influential data privacy laws. The lineup of the editorial and author team reflects the pioneering role of female academics in data protection and GDPR discourse.

In highlighting the controversies and conflicts which the Regulation has faced in its first 5 years, the book illuminates the significance of the GDPR’s introduction in advancing our thinking about the function, form, and future of data protection law, and outlines those matters that remain to be resolved as the GDPR moves towards its first decade in force.

About this title

About the Authors

Róisín Á Costello is Assistant Professor of EU Law at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

She was previously Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, Ireland. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and Georgetown Law, Róisín is a qualified barrister and researches and works on EU law, fundamental rights (with a particular focus on privacy and property rights), media law, language rights, and law and literature. Her research has been supervised by and conducted alongside some of the leading privacy lawyers in Ireland, and internationally, including Professor Julie E Cohen, Professor Alvaro Bedoya and Professor Neil M Richards, Dr Federico Fabbrini and Dr Eoin O'Dell.

Róisín has previously worked with the Georgetown Centre for Privacy and Technology Law and epic.org in Washington DC, researching the interaction of privacy and consumer technologies, and has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals on the subjects of privacy and data protection. Róisín completed her PhD in Law at Trinity College Dublin where her doctoral research was funded by the Irish Research Council and examined private actors as norm setters in the digital environment. Prior to joining DCU, Róisín was Assistant Lecturer in Media and IT Law at Maynooth University and taught at Trinity College Dublin.

MR Leiser, formerly of Vrije Universiteit-Amsterdam and Leiden University, the Netherlands, is an expert specialising in digital, legal, and platform regulation. In addition to consultancy work, he helps run the deceptive.design website (formerly darkpatterns.org).

Edition details

• Publisher: Hart Publishing (UK)
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509977880
• ISBN 13: 9781509977888
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Mark Leiser, Róisín Á Costello