It would be pleasant to think that democracies will always wake up to their threats - internal and external - and heal themselves in good time before it is too late. [...] Yet, it is not too late to find public policy solutions which can restore information technologies to their original role of facilitators of democracy rather than their undertakers. But the timeframe is closing and we need these solutions sooner rather than later.

“Immigration has emerged as the defining issue of our times. […] The challenge that the immigration issue poses to the future of European democracy is real. Immigration itself is a genuine challenge, but the fundamental challenge that immigration brings to the fore is a domestic one, it is about fundamentally different political visions that cut through the citizenry of Europe’s nation states. With that, it becomes critically important how these nation-states, through their democratic institutions, tackle immigration. […] we need both the scholarly analysis and reflection presented in this volume, and we need informed political innovation within and between Europe’s nation-states.”– from the Foreword by Prof. Dr. Kristian Berg Harpviken,Peace Research Institute Oslo“[…] In result, Europe, to its series of recent big questions […] had to add another one: migrants stand ante portas and what to do with them?[…] We have chosen to look at the extent to which the past, the present and the future of irregular migration to Europe relates to the foundational values and principles on which Europe has been built, namely democracy, the rule of law (Rechtsstaat) and the respect for fundamental rights. We focus on those people who seek in Europe various forms of help, motivated by war or other injustices in the places where they come from.[…] the main aim of our book was to join the voluminous professional and academic literature on migration and to offer a few modest suggestion in which direction Europe should go whenever irregular migrants stand ante portas.”– from the Preface by the Editors “This is a timely and elaborate volume interested in the question to what extent the challenge of irregular migration poses a challenge to democracy. The authors approach this issue from different ethical, legal and political angles. They do not shy away from developing concrete recommendations as to what the European Union could do when faced with migratory pressures. Overall, therefore, a highly recommendable contribution.”– Prof. Dr. Florian Trauner, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

I think you are misunderstanding the perceived problem here, Mr President. No one is saying that you broke any laws. We are just saying it is a little bit weird that you did not have to.'- John OliverThe Daily Show, 10 June 2013'John Oliver formulated in this context the very question about the limits, about the use and abuse, of the law and of the state's power when it comes to global mass surveillance practices. Where does lie the 'thin red line' between the two legitimate yet seemingly competing interests: national security and privacy? [...] The result we present to the reader might seem merely another book about the Snowden affaire and the fall of Safe Harbor, but these two have been (only) an inspiration. Our object of interest is the protection of data privacy in relations between Europe and Americas as a challenge for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. [...] The present book is very clearly an anthology - it is a compilation of diverse contributions, from different perspectives, within a broad topic. Our aim with this volume is to highlight a selection of particularly 'hot' questions within the topic of trans-Atlantic data privacy relations as they look at the end of 2016. [...] In the final chapter, we draw out and highlight those themes we see emerging within the body of this work. We eventually attempt to suggest a few lessons de lege ferenda.- from the Preface by the editors'Under the 'Lisbon Treaties', which are in force since 2009, the European Union regards itself as a distinct political entity, which is not a federation of Member States, but it is held together - as Luuk van Middelaar says - with a unique invisible glue". This connection is grounded with shared goals. One of them - expressed both in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 16) and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Articles 7 and 8) is a unique obligation to protect personal data. Stating that everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning them the European Union feels obliged to observe how safe is the data both held in its territory and transferred outside thereof'- from the Foreword by Wojciech R. WiewiórowskiAssistant European Data Protection Supervisor'Privacy and data protection are topics of international significance. While the EU-US relationship gets a great deal of attention there are also many crucial issues of a more global nature. This book includes contributors of international stature who deal with Snowden and Safe Harbour but also go beyond them to address some of the key topics affecting privacy at the international level. The topics are timely and the authors highly qualified and the book will be of interest to anyone interested in privacy and data protection law and policy.'- Dr Christopher KunerCo-Director Brussels Privacy Hub Vrije Universiteit Brusseleditor-in-chief International Data Privacy Law