Convergence between and among the Chinese, the EU and Kazakhstan Approaches towards Personal Data Protection against the AI in the Digital Sphere

Bissaliyev M.S. Susi M. Shakirov K.
1 March 2025 Oxford University Press

Chinese Journal of International Law
2025 #24 Issue 2

The article compares approaches to personal data protection against the AI expansion in the digital domain in three geopolitically and culturally different regions-China, the European Union and Kazakhstan. It builds on views and perspectives from the inside-we use articles and judgments in original languages. Normative convergence is observable at the level of concrete rules which are more immediately connected with the protection of personal data against the AI. There seems a universal utilitarian tendency of more is better. AI high-speed development is countered in all three regions by accelerated normative responses. The phenomenon is termed in the present article as normative turbulence, and constitutes a novel scholarly contribution into the discourse about personal data protection in the digital domain. This phenomenon of normative turbulence has the aspiration to strengthen personal data against the unpredictable powers of AI, capable to disrupt the traditional protection mechanisms. Yet such aspiration appears more as a matter of means and not the result. Two main overarching features of the normative turbulence can be distinguished: norms transposition from non-digital to digital (the matter of how normative elements from pre-AI period can be applied in the digital domain towards AI-driven digital reality); and articulation of new concepts distinctly applicable for the digital domain. We additionally argue that norms transposition has a distinct aspect: norms which are created for personal data protection in the non-digital domain as secondary norms within the meaning of Harts theory, transform into primary level norms in the digital domain. This is another novel theoretical contribution to the debate concerning fundamental rights in the digital domain.

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Department of International Law, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Human Rights Law, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Chile

Department of International Law
Human Rights Law
Universidad Autónoma de Chile

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