Law and Governance as Checks and Balances in Transatlantic Security: Rights, Redress, and Remedies in EU-US Passenger Name Records and the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program

Summary:

This article assesses the remedies, redress, and review mechanisms under the two Agreements (the EU-US Passenger Name Records (EU-US PNR) Agreements and EU-US Terrorist Financial Tracking Programme (EU-US TFTP) Agreements) since their enactment up to the present day, focusing upon the latest EU-US PNR Agreement and its evolution and the EU-US TFTP Agreement.

The paper shows that there are significant shortcomings in the operation of the reviews of these two Agreements. The operation of the Agreements emphasizes how law and governance mechanisms do not necessarily compensate for each other as checks and balances. Accordingly, they demonstrate reasons why the EU should be particularly cautious about replicating this rule-making in EU law, i.e. in adopting an EU PNR based upon the EU-US PNR and a TFTS based upon the EU-US TFTP.