Joost Gerritsen’s Post

What does the 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗨 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 about tech & data look like? A bit like this! Free dataset and visualisation link in the comments! Recently, EUR-Lex provided a data dump of all active EU laws. I found out about this thanks to a post by Pieterjan Montens 🙏 After downloading the huge data file and metadata (which are not relational — you have to match the data files and metadata yourself!), I decided to simply search for laws containing my favourite subjects, such as '𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮', '𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮', '𝗰𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿' 𝗮𝗻𝗱 '𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆'. You'll end up with around 2,400 laws. A large proportion of these are non-legislative acts, such as delegated and implementing acts. Let's skip those, as we practitioners usually have to work with Directives and Regulations. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟱𝟱𝟬 𝗘𝗨 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗺 (as defined by me). Now, let's analyse which laws refer to others within this scope. Some yield no references, so we'll leave them out. 💡 Please note that the data dump contains active laws, so the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC is not included in the network graph as it has been repealed by the GDPR. 💡 A reference includes a reference to a law in either the preamble or the articles. 🏆 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄. The larger the sphere, the more incoming and outgoing references it has. 👨🏫 My main findings are: As expected, 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀 such as the GDPR, EUDPR, #ePrivacy Directive and Law Enforcement Directive (#LED) are popular pieces of legislation. At least 209 directives and regulations refer to the GDPR, for example. Working at a financial institution back in the days, I remember the huge datasets that were processed. It's no surprise that 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀 are well represented in the top 20 most referenced pieces of legislation. Examples include the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the Capital Requirements Directive and MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive). 🌬️ Popular topics also include 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, for example the Whistleblower Protection Directive (EU) 2019/1937, the OLAF Regulation (regarding investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office), and the Statutory Audit Directive 2006/43/EC. 🤯 Remarkably, despite its young age, the #AIAct has already earned a place in the top 20. I counted 62 outgoing references and three incoming references (from the Cyber Resilience Act, the European Health Data Space Regulation, and Directive (EU) 2024/2853 on liability for defective products). 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮? See comment!