Patent and Trade Disparities in Developing Countries

Journal article

1 online resource

9780191767487 eBook

Data privacy laws (also called ‘data protection’) are of increasing importance to both trade and human rights, and are now enacted in over 100 countries globally. This book covers data privacy developments in all 26 jurisdictions in Asia, from Japan to Afghanistan, more than half of which now have significant—though often incomplete—data privacy legislation, most of it very recent and untested by regulators or courts. This book provides the first benchmarking of Asia’s development of data privacy protections. As well as providing detailed analysis of all specialized data privacy laws in Asian countries, it considers constitutional and treaty protections, and protections found in the general civil and criminal law, which are particularly important in countries without specialized legislation. Brief background is included on the history, politics, and legal systems of each country. This book provides an explanation, comparison, and critique of the data privacy laws in Asia, with detailed analysis of the laws in 13 jurisdictions. In addition, it analyses the international agreements and standards concerning data privacy that are relevant to Asia, including those of the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It proposes standards for comparing data privacy principles and privacy enforcement, and uses these to compare developments in Asian countries. The book concludes that the principles found in Asian data privacy laws generally exceed the minimum standards of the 1980s, and are often closer to the higher ‘European’ standards. Enforcement powers are also strengthening considerably. The trajectory of data privacy laws in Asia gives reasons for optimism.

Online resource

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014

English