Roundtable 3
Topic

This roundtable focused on the legal and ethical framework within which empirical research operates throughout Europe. The point of departure is the need of scientists or society to perform research to further science, knowledge and by extension, individual welfare. The main issue addressed was how European common legislative framework, in particular the Data Protection Directive, affects the possibilities for empirical research within Europe. We also wanted to know if and how the development of a common European legal framework has influenced the role and responsibilities of the research ethics committees (RECs) in relation to the requirements of the data protection legislation.

From an historical perspective, legal protection of privacy is of relatively new date. In Europe several countries passed laws regulating access, use and storage of personal information in the seventies and early eighties. These laws were passed mainly as a response to the introduction of the new computer based information technology, and the emerging concerns of potential abuses of personal information kept in statistical, governmental and private agencies.

After the first wave of data protection laws, the European Union adopted he Data Protection Directive in 1995. As a result a second wave of domestic data protection laws appeared in EU and the EEA area. The Directive also seems to have influenced the data protection law in the majority of the twelve Newly Associated States, the so-called NAC countries.

The technological development has undoubtedly increased public attention to and concerns regarding privacy and confidentiality issues. The legal development in this area and the practical solutions chosen to satisfy the demands for privacy and for protection of confidentiality, are of major relevance to the academic sector. We therefore believed it would be useful to devote the major part of the meeting to legal issues related to data access, dissemination and use.