digital constitutionalism; fundamental rights; privacy; data protection; digital platforms; separation of powers; intermediation services; online content; GDPR; DSA; e-commerce Directive
G. De Gregorio, Digital Constitutionalism in Europe. Reframing Rights and Powers in the Algorithmic Society (Cambridge University Press 2022).
Dworkin’s famous political integrity argument suggests an internal moral coherence of laws which allows the preservation of its political integrity: R. Dworkin, Law’s Empire (Harvard University Press 1986) p. 176.
Coincidentally, Varoufakis expressed a similar opinion, when qualifying the digital (i.e. platform-dominated) markets as technofeudal, alluding to platforms’ power over individuals’ data, without those individuals having much say in how their data are collected, used and stored by the technolords (as Varoufakis qualifies online platforms). See Y. Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism? (Bodley Head 2023).
Directive 95/46 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data O.J. 1995, L 281/31.
Directive 2000/31 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal market O.J. 2000, L 178/1.
ECJ 13 May 2014, Case C-131/12, Google Spain, ECLI:EU:C:2013:424.
Ibid., para. 38.
ECJ 29 January 2008, Case C-275/06, Promusicae, ECLI:EU:C:2007:454.
ECJ 19 February 2009, Case C-557/07, LSG, ECLI:EU:C:2009:107.
ECJ 23 March 2010, Joined Cases 236/08 to C-238/08, Google France, ECLI:EU:C:2009:569.
ECJ 12 July 2011, Case C-324/09, L’Oréal, ECLI:EU:C:2010:757.
Regulation No. 2022/2065 on a Single Market for Digital Services O.J. 2022, L 277/1.
Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market O.J. 2019, L 130/92.
Directive 2018/1808 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation and administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) O.J. 2018, L 303/69.
Regulation No. 2021/784 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online O.J. 2021, L 172/79.
ECJ 3 October 2019, Case C-18/18, Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, ECLI:EU:C:2019:821.
Ibid., para. 47.
ECJ 22 January 2013, Case C-283/11, Sky Österreich, ECLI: EU:C:2012:341.
See e.g. R. Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (Harvard University Press 1978) p. 193; S. Riley, ‘Human Dignity as a Sui Generis Principle’, 32(4) Ratio Juris (2019) p. 439; R. Bayefsky, ‘Dignity, Honour, and Human Rights’, 41(6) Political Theory (2013) p. 775.
The search for balance between market rationality and democatic rationality is expressed in the White Paper on AI which alludes to the balance sought between the ecosystems of trust and of excellence: White Paper on AI, COM (2020) 65 final.
A. Bradford, The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World (Oxford University Press 2020).
M. Draghi, The Future of European Competitiveness, 9 September 2024, https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/draghi-report_en#paragraph_47059, visited 30 November 2025.
R. Carré de Malberg, Contribution à la théorie générale de l’État (Sirey 1920).
G. Jellinek, L’État moderne et son droit (Giard & Brière 1911).
C. Schmitt, La théorie politique du mythe (PUF 2009); C. Schmitt, Le nomos de la terre: dans le droit des gens du ‘jus publicum europaeum’ (PUF 2001).
H. Kelsen, Pure Theory of Law (Clark 2005).
G. Burdeau, Traité de science politique (LGDJ 1980) p. 98.
ECJ 23 April 2986, Case C-294/83, Les Verts v Parliament, ECLI:EU:C:1985:483, para. 23.
See, namely, J. Gerkrath, L’émergence d’un droit constitutionnel pour l’Europe : modes de formation et sources d’inspiration de la Constitution des Communautés et de l’Union européenne (Université de Bruxelles 1997).
G. Marti, Le pouvoir constituant européen (Bruylant 2011).
Constitutional patriotism was conceptualised by Habermas and gave way to a significant constitutional and political scholarship. For a comment on this doctrine, see, for example, F.H. Llano Alonso, ‘European Constitutional Patriotism and Postnational Citizenship in Jürgen Habermas’, 103(4) Archiv für Rechts und Socialphilosophie (2017) p. 504.
See K. Yeung and S. Ranchordas, An Introduction to Law and Regulation: Text and Materials (Cambridge University Press 2024).
N. Smuha, Algorithmic Rule by Law: How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2024).
This focus on risks is visible even in earlier works on ‘constitutional perspectives’ on digitalisation. See, for instance, I. Pernice, ‘Risk Management in the Digital Constellation – A Constitutional Perspective’, 26(2) Revista de Internet, Derecho y Politica (2019) p. 83.
Case C-40/17, Fashion ID, ECLI:EU:C:2019:629.
Ibid., para. 26.
See O. Pollicino, Judicial Protection of Fundamental Rights on the Internet: A Road Towards Digital Constitutionalism? (Hart Publishing 2021).
M. Jones, ‘Mind Extended: Relational, Spatial, and Performative Ontologies’, 39 AI & Society (2024) p. 21.
See, inter alia, S. Pierosara, ‘Narrative Autonomy and Artificial Storytelling’, 39 AI & Society (2024) p. 1785; E. Grosz, ‘Identity and Individuation: Some Feminist Reflections’, in E. Grosz et al. (eds.), Gilbert Simondon. Being and Technology (Cambridge University Press 2012) p. 37; A. Bardin, Epistemology and Political Philosophy in Gilbert Simondon. Individuation, Technics, Social Systems (Springer 2015); B. Latour, ‘Agency at the Time of Anthropocene’, 45 New Literary History (2014) p. 1.
M. Coeckelbergh, Human being @ Risk. Enhancement, Technology, and the Evaluation of Vulnerability Transformations, Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol. 12 (Springer 2013); G. Malgieri, Vulnerability and Data Protection Law (Oxford University Press 2023).
