Thesis title:
'Data and Content in the Digital World: Revisiting Proportionality in the EU Legal Order' [provisional title]
Supervisors
Professor Kai Moller, Dr Orla Lynskey and Dr Jan Zglinski
Research interests
EU Law, Data Protection Law, Internet Regulation, Constitutional Rights
Spyros is a PhD candidate at the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Law School. His main research interests concern all aspects of EU law, as well as the effective protection of fundamental rights in the digital sphere. He is a recipient of the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ PhD Studentship, and he is also a scholar of the AG Leventis Foundation. His PhD project aims to critically examine how proportionality intersects with the ‘data’ and ‘content’ anchors of the digital space within the EU legal order. Methodologically, the project is primarily driven by an empirical analysis (in the form of a systematic content analysis) of the CJEU jurisprudence in the fields of data protection, and freedom of expression (with an emphasis given to copyright and platform regulation) in relation to proportionality. The insights of this empirical lens are used in order to normatively query the expansion of fundamental rights proportionality analysis in the CJEU reasoning, and to uncover the challenges stemming from the polycentric role of proportionality in the digital age for the future of fundamental rights within the EU constitutional order.
Spyros is a qualified lawyer and a member of the Athens Bar Association. He has previously practised law in a top-tier law firm in Athens, focusing primarily on data protection law as well as on other aspects of EU law. Moreover, Spyros has gained experience in the field of EU technology policy and digital rights. He has completed a Blue Book traineeship at the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics unit of the Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect) of the European Commission in Luxembourg, where he focused on AI regulation and ethics in the context of his engagement with the AI High-Level Expert Group. Additionally, he has worked as a policy officer for the Research Strategy and Programme Coordination unit within the same DG in Brussels, where he covered a broad range of regulatory and innovation aspects of the digital transition with a focus on the development and coordination of the EU strategy on digital sovereignty, EU strategic autonomy and evidence-based policy making through the lens of strategic foresight.