The School of Law congratulates Mireille Caruana who has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Mireille’s thesis "Privacy and ICTs in a Changing World: differing European approaches to uses of personal data in the criminal justice sector" was supervised by Andrew Charlesworth, Reader in IT Law and Professor Steven Greer.

The central themes of her thesis rest upon analysis of the influence of the CoE Recommendation R(87)15 on Regulating the Use of Personal Data in the Police Sector which provides a sector-specific application of the data protection principles established in the CoE Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data.

The thesis first traces the history of the drafting of Recommendation R(87)15, based on research amongst materials drawn from the CoE’s archives in Strasbourg. It then provides, in a unique empirical snap-shot, a census of where European legislation stands as regards processing of personal data for police purposes, as the European Union progresses beyond the first pillar/third pillar dichotomy in the post-Lisbon Treaty era. Based on the empirical research, the thesis outlines aspects of the current legal regime that should be updated or improved, primarily in the context of the reform of the EU data protection framework, with a special focus on data processing in the police and criminal justice sector. This analysis identifies the extent to which the principles of Recommendation R(87)15 have been adopted, adapted, strengthened, weakened or abandoned in the current EU reform proposals.

The author argues that, while the provisions of Recommendation R(87)15, especially those which reinforce the principles of necessity, proportionality and purpose-specification/limitation, are held up as “an inalterable necessary minimum” for police and security forces, that this “necessary minimum” is too minimal, and that changed circumstances make it advisable to further strengthen and expand the provisions of Recommendation R(87)15. She concludes that the central question to be asked when restrictions on a fundamental right are concerned is: “How much limitation of a fundamental right is permissible in a democratic constitutional state in which fundamental rights are a constitutive element?”

Mireille's examiners were Lois Bibbings (Law, Bristol) and Professor Chris Millard (Law, QMUL).

Mireille is currently Lecturer in European & Comparative Law in the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta