in the books.
6 So the System started out slowly, providing a certain amount of
leeway within its boundaries, but in the last couple of years has picked up pace and is
progressing with increasing speed.
Cape Verde is a relatively young country that only achieved independence from
Portugal in 1975,
7 a factor that could provide an explanation for the relative unease,
from a technical point of view, caused by topics such as data protection and
information technology. First of all, there were more important priorities in the
construction of the legal order during the initial decades of the country’s independence, so the creation of legal solutions relied specifically on the gradual substitution
of Portuguese colonial legislation with laws that related specifically to Cape Verde.
This was true even in the cases that relied heavily in recent legislation of the former
colonial power,
8 which, specifically in the field of data protection, is justified by
history and the fact that most Cape Verdean lawyers involved in legislative decisionmaking, legal consulting and the field of legal practice and application (judges,
commissioners, attorneys, etc.) had their legal training in Portugal,
9 but also because
of a certain lack of autonomy and of some audaciousness of local scholars and
practitioners in thinking outside the box; second, the lack of legal expertise in
technologically related law is also a persistent problem that affects developing
countries
10 and which is only very slowly being overcome; furthermore, as is the
case in many tiny societies, one cannot say that, differently from other constitutional
values as freedom and even human dignity,
11 a culture of strong and comprehensive
privacy is congenital to the Cape Verdean ethos,
12 which is an important factor
because despite the understanding of privacy
13 having, at its core, some universal
and shared human traits and necessities,
14 its specific manifestations are contextual,
15 which determines the broadness of its defence in a political community.
From a symbolic point of view the first Liberal Democratic Constitution of the
country, adopted in 1992 after 15 years of a one-party system,
16 presented privacy as
6 For general presentations and some background, Almeida (2004), pp. 229–268; Traça and Embry
(2011), pp. 249–255; Pinheiro (2015), pp. 563–566; Traça and Gaspar (2016), pp. 249–258; Cham
(2017), pp. 87–90.
7 In the English language literature, see Lobban Jr (1995).
8 See the evaluation of Bogdan (2000).
9 As stressed recently by Traça and Gaspar (2016), p. 253.
10 UNTACD (2012), p. 9.
11 See the decision to the Request by the Attorney General to the Constitutional Court to Control the
Constitutionality of Article 9(2) of the Law on the Judicial Council, Ruling No 07/2016, of 10 May,
J. Pina Delgado (rap.), Constitutional Court, published by the Republic’s Official Gazette [Boletim
Oficial], I Serie, n. 35, 10 May 2016, pp. 1224–1252, at II.
12 See also National Authority on Data Protection (2017), p. 6.
13 In general, Wacks (2010).
14 E.g., see the essay by Fried (1968).
15 Follow the influent Whitman (2004).
16 A glance of the transition to multi-party system is provided by Chabal (1996); Silva (2015),
pp. 196 and ff, deals with constitutional law aspects.
78
J. Pina-Delgado
6 So the System started out slowly, providing a certain amount of
leeway within its boundaries, but in the last couple of years has picked up pace and is
progressing with increasing speed.
Cape Verde is a relatively young country that only achieved independence from
Portugal in 1975,
7 a factor that could provide an explanation for the relative unease,
from a technical point of view, caused by topics such as data protection and
information technology. First of all, there were more important priorities in the
construction of the legal order during the initial decades of the country’s independence, so the creation of legal solutions relied specifically on the gradual substitution
of Portuguese colonial legislation with laws that related specifically to Cape Verde.
This was true even in the cases that relied heavily in recent legislation of the former
colonial power,
8 which, specifically in the field of data protection, is justified by
history and the fact that most Cape Verdean lawyers involved in legislative decisionmaking, legal consulting and the field of legal practice and application (judges,
commissioners, attorneys, etc.) had their legal training in Portugal,
9 but also because
of a certain lack of autonomy and of some audaciousness of local scholars and
practitioners in thinking outside the box; second, the lack of legal expertise in
technologically related law is also a persistent problem that affects developing
countries
10 and which is only very slowly being overcome; furthermore, as is the
case in many tiny societies, one cannot say that, differently from other constitutional
values as freedom and even human dignity,
11 a culture of strong and comprehensive
privacy is congenital to the Cape Verdean ethos,
12 which is an important factor
because despite the understanding of privacy
13 having, at its core, some universal
and shared human traits and necessities,
14 its specific manifestations are contextual,
15 which determines the broadness of its defence in a political community.
From a symbolic point of view the first Liberal Democratic Constitution of the
country, adopted in 1992 after 15 years of a one-party system,
16 presented privacy as
6 For general presentations and some background, Almeida (2004), pp. 229–268; Traça and Embry
(2011), pp. 249–255; Pinheiro (2015), pp. 563–566; Traça and Gaspar (2016), pp. 249–258; Cham
(2017), pp. 87–90.
7 In the English language literature, see Lobban Jr (1995).
8 See the evaluation of Bogdan (2000).
9 As stressed recently by Traça and Gaspar (2016), p. 253.
10 UNTACD (2012), p. 9.
11 See the decision to the Request by the Attorney General to the Constitutional Court to Control the
Constitutionality of Article 9(2) of the Law on the Judicial Council, Ruling No 07/2016, of 10 May,
J. Pina Delgado (rap.), Constitutional Court, published by the Republic’s Official Gazette [Boletim
Oficial], I Serie, n. 35, 10 May 2016, pp. 1224–1252, at II.
12 See also National Authority on Data Protection (2017), p. 6.
13 In general, Wacks (2010).
14 E.g., see the essay by Fried (1968).
15 Follow the influent Whitman (2004).
16 A glance of the transition to multi-party system is provided by Chabal (1996); Silva (2015),
pp. 196 and ff, deals with constitutional law aspects.
78
J. Pina-Delgado