Copyright © 2025 the Contributors to the Legal Concepts for European Union (EU) Specification, published by the Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA). A human-readable summary is available.
Contributors: (ordered alphabetically) Harshvardhan J. Pandit (AI Accountability Lab (AIAL), Trinity College Dublin). NOTE: The affiliations are informative, do not represent formal endorsements, and may be outdated as this list is generated automatically from existing data.
The LEGAL-EU extension extends the Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) Specification to represent laws, authorities, and other legal concepts in EU jurisdiction.
The canonical URL for LEGAL-EU extension is https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu, the namespace is https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#
, the suggested prefix is legal-eu
, and this document along with source and releases are available at https://github.com/w3c/dpv.
DPV Specifications: The [DPV] is the core specification within the DPV family, with the following extensions: Personal Data [PD], Locations [LOC], Risk Management [RISK], Technology [TECH] and [AI], [JUSTIFICATIONS], [SECTOR] specific extensions, and [LEGAL] extensions modelling specific jurisdictions and regulations. A [PRIMER] introduces the concepts and modelling of DPV specifications, and [GUIDES] describe application of DPV for specific applications and use-cases. The Search Index page provides a searchable hierarchy of all concepts. The Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group (DPVCG) develops and manages these specifications through GitHub. For meetings, see the DPVCG calendar.
To cite and understand the structure of DPV, the article "Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) - Version 2.0" (2024) describes the current state of DPV and extensions from version 2.0 onwards (open access version here). The earlier article "Creating A Vocabulary for Data Privacy" (2019) describes how the DPV was developed (open access versions here, here, and here).
Contributing: The DPVCG welcomes participation to improve the DPV and associated resources, including expansion or refinement of concepts, requesting information and applications, and addressing open issues. See contributing guide for further information.
This specification was published by the Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group. It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track. Please note that under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA) other conditions apply. Learn more about W3C Community and Business Groups.
GitHub Issues are preferred for discussion of this specification.
The Legal extension uses the following concepts and properties to define laws, authorities, and jurisdictions.
This page provides the following legal concepts:
Within the [LEGAL-EU] extension namespace, the following laws are defined as separate extensions with their own namespaces:
Laws are represented as instances of dpv:Law
, and are associated with their jurisdictions using the [LOC] taxonomy and dpv:hasJurisdiction
relation. The webpage for the law, if available, is indicated using foaf:homepage
, and the temporal start and end if available, is represented using dct:temporal
relation with an instance of time:ProperInterval
.
Adequacy decisions representing agreements between jurisdictions such as for free flow of data, are currently only defined in [GDPR]. They are represented as instances of eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
, and are associated with relevant jurisdictions using dpv:hasJurisdiction
. The start and end, if available, is represented using dct:temporal
with an instance of time:ProperInterval
. The webpage, if available, is indicated using foaf:homepage
.
ID | Name | Jurisdictions | Webpage | Start/End |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adequacy-EU-AD
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Andorra | Andorra, European Union (EU) | link | 2010-10-21/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-AR
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Argentina | Argentina, European Union (EU) | link | 2003-07-05/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-CA
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Canada (commercial organisations) | Canada, European Union (EU) | link | 2002-01-04/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-CH
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Switzerland | Switzerland, European Union (EU) | link | 2000-08-25/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-FO
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Faroe Islands | European Union (EU), Faroe Islands | link | 2010-03-09/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-GB
|
EU Adequacy Decision for United Kingdom | European Union (EU), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | link | 2021-06-28/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-GG
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Guernsey | European Union (EU), Guernsey | link | 2003-11-21/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-IL
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Israel | European Union (EU), Israel | link | 2011-02-01/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-IM
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Isle of Man | European Union (EU), Isle of Man | link | 2004-04-30/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-JE
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Jersey | European Union (EU), Jersey | link | 2008-05-26/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-JP
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Japan | European Union (EU), Japan | link | 2019-01-23/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-NZ
|
EU Adequacy Decision for New Zealand | European Union (EU), New Zealand | link | 2012-12-20/ongoing |
Adequacy-EU-UY
|
EU Adequacy Decision for Uruguay | European Union (EU), Uruguay | link | 2012-08-22/ongoing |
Term | Adequacy-EU-AD | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Andorra | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-AD | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | Andorra , European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-AR | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Argentina | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-AR | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | Argentina , European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-CA | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Canada (commercial organisations) | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-CA | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | Canada , European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-CH | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Switzerland | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-CH | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | Switzerland , European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-FO | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Faroe Islands | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-FO | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Faroe Islands | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-GB | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for United Kingdom | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-GB | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-GG | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Guernsey | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-GG | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Guernsey | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-IL | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Israel | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-IL | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Israel | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-IM | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Isle of Man | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-IM | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Isle of Man | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-JE | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Jersey | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-JE | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Jersey | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-JP | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Japan | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-JP | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Japan | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-NZ | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for New Zealand | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-NZ | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , New Zealand | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | Adequacy-EU-UY | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | EU Adequacy Decision for Uruguay | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-UY | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision | ||
Broader/Parent types | eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision → eu-gdpr:A45-3 → dpv:DataTransferLegalBasis → dpv:LegalBasis | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasLegalBasis | ||
Date Created | 2022-03-30 | ||
Contributors | Harshvardhan J. Pandit, Harshvardhan J. Pandit | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) , Uruguay | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | law-AIAct | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | AI Act | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-AIAct | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law | ||
Broader/Parent types | dpv:Law | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasApplicableLaw | ||
Date Created | 2023-12-09 | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | law-DataAct | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | Data Act | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DataAct | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law | ||
Broader/Parent types | dpv:Law | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasApplicableLaw | ||
Date Created | 2023-12-08 | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | law-DGA | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | Data Governance Act (DGA) | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DGA | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law | ||
Broader/Parent types | dpv:Law | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasApplicableLaw | ||
Date Created | 2023-12-05 | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | law-DMA | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | Digital Markets Act (DMA) | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DMA | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law | ||
Broader/Parent types | dpv:Law | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasApplicableLaw | ||
Date Created | 2023-12-07 | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
Term | law-DSA | Prefix | legal-eu |
---|---|---|---|
Label | Digital Services Act (DSA) | ||
IRI | https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DSA | ||
Type | rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law | ||
Broader/Parent types | dpv:Law | ||
Object of relation | dpv:hasApplicableLaw | ||
Date Created | 2023-12-06 | ||
has jurisdiction | European Union (EU) | ||
See More: | section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU |
DPV uses the following terms from [RDF] and [RDFS] with their defined meanings:
The following external concepts are re-used within DPV:
E.g. in EU, there are rights, legal basis, etc. in GDPR, DGA, and so on. Provide a consolidated list of these in the EU extension (/legal/legal-eu.ttl
) for convenience of use. A bunch of SPARQL queries over extensions should be able to do this.
The German “Gesundheitsdatennutzungsgesetz” (GDNG) regulates many aspects of the use and access of health data in Germany. An extension for the EHDS is currently being worked on. Addressing national legislation at the same time would be very helpful for German initiatives such as the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII).
The DPVCG was established as part of the SPECIAL H2020 Project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 731601 from 2017 to 2019. Continued developments have been funded under: RECITALS Project funded under the EU's Horizon program with grant agreement No. 101168490.
Harshvardhan J. Pandit was funded to work on DPV from 2020 to 2022 by the Irish Research Council's Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant#GOIPD/2020/790.
The ADAPT SFI Centre for Digital Media Technology is funded by Science Foundation Ireland through the SFI Research Centres Programme and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through Grant#13/RC/2106 (2018 to 2020) and Grant#13/RC/2106_P2 (2021 onwards).
The contributions of Harshvardhan J. Pandit have been made with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant Agreement No. 13/RC/2106_P2 at the ADAPT SFI Research Centre; and the AI Accountability Lab (AIAL) which is supported by grants from following groups: the AI Collaborative, an Initiative of the Omidyar Group; Luminate; the Bestseller Foundation; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
total extensions: 43 ; added: 9 ; removed: 0 ;
The changelog provides more information on concepts that have been added/removed in this version. Below is a summary of the changes.