Can Chinese legislation on informational privacy benefit from European experience?

Abstract

The era of big data brings with it

increasing challenges to privacy. China witnessed a lack of data

protection law. It wants to upgrade its legal arrangement on personal

data protection. Accordingly, Chinese legislators consider cloning European data protection law. The plan raises a number of questions: Can European data protection law improve the quality of data protection in China? If so, how do the historic and cultural contexts matter for data protection laws unfolding in Europe and in China? Chinese policymakers assume that the european data protection law is complete, but it is not. How should China process the EU experiences to achieve a positive impact for how personal data are deployed and protected in the commercial world? In this book, these questions are examined. The book synthesizes dogmatic and empirical discussions and establishes that the subject matter of data protection law exhibits the characteristics of a complex adaptive system. It is aruged that complexity and legal theories provide a toolbox to improve exploration of data protection laws, its functions and its dynamics. The book ventures to open doors to help legal scholarship facing problems now, that threaten to trouble data protection law arrangements for decades to come.