This module is about legal issues related to cross-border access to data by state authorities. The basis of the issue here is very fundamental and goes back to the mere question of territorially defined state sovereignty.

The compulsory reading is this article from Stanford Law Review:

Supplementary reading (not compulsory) is a Harvard Law Review note written upon the first-instance decision in that case. Please, note that the case was then decided further by the 2nd Circuit and the Supreme Court (all is discussed at the seminar), but the first instance decision is mostly interesting in terms of substantive arguments.

Required assignment for this module is a short essay (approx. 400-600 words) that addresses the following question: Did the U.S. effectively exercise its sovereign powers over data stored on the Microsoft cloud in the Microsoft Ireland case?

If you do not feel comfortable with the background issue here, i.e. territoriality of law and sovereignty of state on the internet, you can use the following text to get oriented (not compulsory):

If you got interested in this issue, you can use this book as a complex reference for further research. The book is available through institutional subscription by Masaryk University - to view it remotely, please use the proxy servers of MU.