Cloud Computing and the Looming Global Privacy Battle by Michael Chertoff in The Washington Post. Chertoff warns in compelling terms that new privacy rules in Europe could have an unintended effect by preventing Europeans from using global cloud computing facilities. Maintaining transatlantic "interoperability" on data flows is seen as vital in stimulating economic growth in Europe (and the U.S.). Recommended by European Affairs. (2/15)

By Zachary Laven --- European Affairs editorial assistant

The European Commission’s proposal for a sweeping overhaul of rules protecting individuals’ privacy in on-line data was unveiled Wednesday as a modernizing step that could reassure users and streamline procedures for companies in this complex new legal and technical environment.

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The top European official dealing with internet matters spoke out publicly against Congressional draft bills penalizing websites for pirating movies as “bad legislation.” Her statement, via Twitter, reflected what her spokesman said was “concern about peoples’ access to the internet.”

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On June 15, 2011, The Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, head of the Directorate of Public International Law at the Swiss Foreign Ministry, discussed “Neutrality in a Multi-Polar World: Myth or Reality?” This important exchange on the relevance of neutrality in jurisprudence and for nations increasingly bound by regional and international commitments was moderated by Dr. Ruth Wedgwood, Director of the International Law and Organizations Program at SAIS.

Amid the strident furor about media freedom in Europe, Budapest has also started actively defending itself in the U.S. against charges that new Hungarian press laws will restrict reporting and could portend anti-democratic moves on a broader scale.

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