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The widespread availability of Internet raises increasingly complex issues in terms of information regulation. In fact, the amount of circulating information and the possibilities to track them is raising growing concerns, related both to business as well as personal freedoms, that were not even imaginable in the early Nineties, when the first legal provisions related to the protection of personal data were adopted by the European Union (hereinafter EU).  

In May 2014, by “leveraging” a case that occurred within one of the EU Member States (namely, Spain, the main parties being a Spanish citizen, a Spanish media group, and the Google group), the EU Court of Justice (“EUCJ”) wrote a new page on the protection of the “digital rights” of individuals when operating in the internet, by delivering a decision in contrast with a concept of net neutrality behind which the web companies can freely operate.1 Purpose of this case comment is to read together, and eventually understand, the main features of a sea-changing EU jurisprudence. In order to do this, we will try, first, to introduce the relevant EU legal framework, moving then to a more detailed analysis of the case law; some conclusive (as well as critical) remarks will also be provided. 

Eclipsing the Web

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Filing a class action is subject to some limitations. The first limitation is that only consumers have standing. Any consumer may file a class action personally, through a consumers’ association or a committee of consumers established expressly to file that class action. In practice, almost all class actions have so far been filed through and financed by consumers’ associations. Class actions are not cost effective for consumers.  

A notable exception is the De Zordo vs. Quadrifoglio class action. In this case, an individual consumer filed a class action personally against a private company charged with cleaning the streets of Florence. The plaintiff complained that the defendant breached its contract with the municipality (and therefore with the citizens of Florence at large) on he occasion of an exceptional and unprecedented snowfall. However, Mrs. De Zordo was not a common consumer. She was a member of the city council, who was obviously more interested in the political return of her judicial initiative than in recovering non-pecuniary damages caused by the snowfall. 

The second limitation to the availability of class actions is that they may be filed only for certain infringements: infringements of contractual rights, product liability, unfair commercial practices, and infringements of antitrust law. Recently, class actions have also been made available in cases of liability of providers of services. For all other infringements, class actions are not available. For example, class actions may not be filed in case of environmental liability. It is disputed as to what extent class actions may be filed in case of fraud on financial markets.  

Class Actions

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Il credente sa che l’uomo ha avuto accesso alle cose invisibili fin dal momento della sua apparizione sulla terra. La creazione fu accompagnata da una rivelazione primaria, senza la quale il primo uomo non avrebbe saputo come orientarsi. 

Per l’antropologo, il primo uomo è homo habilis, privo dei centri di Broca e di Wernicke, dotato di una faringe e una laringe che non gli permettevano di produrre i suoni che oggi costituiscono il nostro strumento fonetico. 

D’altronde, la teologia non ci dice chi fosse, per essa, il primo uomo. Essa non è obbligata a rivolgersi per chiarimenti all’antropologo, che parla di homo quando parla di un fabbricante di utensili. La vicenda dell’uomo teologico potrebbe essere più breve di quella dell’uomo zoologico, e incominciare con l’uomo che comunica con strumenti vocali evoluti, o addirittura che l’uomo che pensa con strumenti logico-concettuali avanzati (nemmeno Teilhard de Chardin ha trattato il tema). 

In ogni caso, da una certa data l’uomo ha lasciato segni dell’accesso, da lui praticato, in un mondo nascosto ai suoi sensi. 

Qui non tratterò di quell’accesso, ingannevole, che si opera nel sogno, allorché ci appaiono i vivi ed i morti, allorché si compiono gli eventi (cui, quando svegli, non abbiamo mai assistito) che più temiamo e che più desideriamo. 

Da 300.000 anni l’uomo ha una qualche cura dei suoi morti. È questo un segno? 

Cosa più rilevante, da 35.000 anni l’uomo pratica arti figurative. Dal -35.000 al       -10.000 l’uomo di Cro-Magnon ha disseminato in Europa, soprattutto in Francia e Spagna, pitture parietali di eccezionale importanza e bellezza (grotte di Lascaux, di Pech Merle, di Niaux, dei Trois Frères, del Mas d’Azil, di Altamira ecc.), nonché sculture significative. Pittura e graffiti importantissimi sono presenti anche nel Sahara e altrove. 

Il Soprannaturale E Il Diritto

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Believers assume that humanity could access to invisible since his appearance on earth: a primary Revelation must have accompanied the Creation in order, for the man, to know how to behave. 

Anthropologists, on the other hand, believe that the first man is the homo habilis who, deprived of both Broca’s and Wernicke’s cerebral areas, had a larynx and pharynx that did not permit him to produce those sounds that constitute our current phonetic system. 

Theology, on its part, does not tell us who the first man was: theologians do not need to ask for clarifications to anthropologists, which define the homo as utensil manufacturer. Man as described by theologians might have had a more recent appearance than the man in zoological terms, and his story may begin when men started to communicate through an advanced phonetic system, or even when man initiated to use complex logic-and-conceptual categories (this is a topic that was not addressed even by Teilhard de Chardin). 

It is however undoubted that, starting from a specific moment, man showed signals of access to a world that was hidden to his senses. I will not deal, on this occasion, with the issue of the deceptive access that occurs during dreams, when the living and the dead appear to us and when it is possible for those events, that we fear or desire the most – and which we never witnessed when awake – to happen. 

For 300.000 years, men have taken care of their dead. Is that a sign? Most importantly, men have performed visual arts for 35.000 years at least: from 35.000 to 10.000 B.C. Cro-Magnons disseminated in Europe – in particular, France and Spain – parietal paintings of exceptional importance and beauty (Lascaux Caves, Pech Merle, Niaux, Trois Frères, Mas d’Azil, Altamira, etc.) and significant sculptures. Important paintings and graffiti may be also found in the Sahara desert, and elsewhere.

Supernatural and the Law

Issue 23

ARTICLES

Supernatural and the Law……………………………………………………..Rodolfo Sacco

Il Soprannaturale E Il Diritto………………………………………………….Rodolfo Sacco

Class Actions in Italy: A Farewell to America.……………………………Giorgio Afferni

Eclipsing the Web: Online Data Protection and Liability of Search Engines in the Google Spain Case…………………………………………………………………………………….Antonio Davola

……………………………………………………………………………………………Elisa Stracqualursi

International Taxation: The Issue of Tax Evasion by Corporations………………………………………………………………………….Valeria Camboni Miller

A Journey Through Italy’s Overcrowded Prisons………………Giancarlo P. Pezzuti

CASE COMMENTS

Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency…………………………………………………………………………………..Heather DeLaurie

McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission……………………….Dennis Polio

 

Mission:
The Digest is the law journal of the National Italian American Bar Association (NIABA).   The Digest is a professional journal publishing articles of general interest to the profession with a special focus on Roman Law, Civil Law, Italian Law, and all areas of property law (from real property to intellectual property, cultural property, land use, and the law of historic preservation).

SUBMISSIONS: The journal publishes articles, essays, commentary, and book reviews.  You may submit a paper for us to consider by e-mailing it as a Word attachment and sending it to:  digest@law.syr.edu.  Papers should be submitted in English.

The Digest is published as part of a special partnership between NIABA and the Syracuse University College of Law. Students at the College serve on an Editorial Board that is responsible for editing and producing The Digest.

Membership on The Digest is open to all students who have an interest in Italian American heritage and culture, and who want an excellent opportunity to learn from a law review experience. All members obtain a handbook on Italian culture and heritage, and each member is recognized by the College of Law for his or her contribution as an editor.

Digest Editorial Board:
The Digest is operated as a student run law review within the College of Law, but it has some unique features.   The Digest has a faculty member in charge of its operations as Editor-in-Chief who is also on the national Board of Directors for NIABA.  Day to day duties of running the journal are turned over to student Managing Editors and their staff.

NIABA:
The NIABA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation, founded in 1983 to advance the interests of the Italian American legal community and to improve the administration of justice. NIABA members include judges, law professors, and law students, as well as attorneys in both private and public sectors. A Board of Directors elected by members governs the Association. Local chapters of NIABA are located in cities throughout the U.S. Local chapters go by the name NIABA or by affiliated names including The Justinians and The Columbian Lawyers.

Membership:
Each Spring The Digest invites interested students to join the Editorial Board. To be considered for an associate editor position, students must hand in an appellate brief or memorial and complete graded exercises. Space is limited. The Managing Editor and the Associate Managing Editor are selected directly by the Editor-in-Cheif.  The Managing positions are very competitive and demanding. Each year, associate editors write a case comment which may be selected for publication in the digest. While membership is open to all students, students of Italian American heritage are strongly encouraged to apply. Each year students from a diverse and varied background join together to make this journal a success. The Digest benefits from the devoted effort of many students including many who are not Italian American.