Fundamental Rights and Disruptive Technologies: a Right to Personal Identity under the European Multi-level System of Protection?

Abstract

This paper explores the protection offered by the EU and the ECHR to the right to personal identity. The need to protect personal identity arises from the use of disruptive technologies (as blockchain) that allow the management of a considerable amount of data that identify a specific person (personal data). The paper explores the protection to the right of personal identity via the analysis of the case law of the ECJ and the ECtHR. The analysis of the protection offered to personal identity in the European legal order is especially critical in the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the ECHR signature and the Schuman Declaration, which could be the occasion to re-open the debate on the relationship between the EU and the ECHR.