Electronic Communications Law legal issues and the effect of it towards freedom, security and justice in the Republic of Latvia

Abstract

On 15 March 2006, the European Union adopted the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC which regulated the Internet Service Providers storage of telecommunications data and could be used to fight serious crime in the European Union. This directive was needed, because people in the European Union needed a higher level of data protection. Since multiple countries had their own data retention laws, the European Parliament and the Council saw the need to harmonise and strengthen the data retention in the European Union. Despite the noble intentions, the European Court of Justice declared it invalid on 8 April 2014. Yet, the essence of the Directive was transposed to each and every national data retention law across European Union. In this master thesis, author examines whether member states, but particularly, The Republic of Latvia has learned anything from the invalidation of the Directive 2006/24/EC. The author of this thesis will first of all, look into the adoption and invalidation reasons of the Directive 2006/24/EC. Following that the author will look into the to see if there is any resemblance to the Directive 2006/EC/24, considering the fact that this law consist of norms that are directly transposed from the Directive 2006/24/EC. In order to conclude whether the Electronic Communications Law is affecting the freedom, security and justice in Latvia, author will analyse whether the arguments presented by the European Court of Justice are applicable to the Electronic Communications Law.