Including but not limited to: How Brussels is emerging as a global regulatory superpower, establishing its data protection standard worldwide

Abstract: Can the European Union shape global regulatory policy? If it can, what conditions exist? This is the essential question at the centre of this thesis. This thesis will employ the case of global data protection regulation and put the two opposing theories of realist Daniel Drezner and institutionalist Anu Bradford against each other. To answer the first questions data protection authorities around the world have been asked to complete questionnaires on principles in their laws and these have been matched with common European and non-European data protection frameworks. The data indicates that the European Union is able to shape global data protection legislation. Two answer the second question, the two theories have been compared and confronted with the results from the first research question. While both authors cannot be completely proven or disproven, taking only their central disagreement if the European Union can shape policy against the preferences of the United States, Bradford having answered this positively emerges with the data on her side.