Author: Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Center for Law and Democracy

This comparative analysis encompasses legislation pertaining to free access to information, personal data protection and/or other relevant legislation in order to assess whether access to information should be granted if necessary for research purposes and if so, under which conditions access to information may be granted.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection commissioned this analysis of international and comparative legal framework and practice, in particular the EU regulations and standard setting pertaining to the treatment of the requestors of information needed for scientific and other types of research, in order to strike appropriate balance between freedom of information and legitimate limitation of the right on the one hand, and the need for researchers to access restricted documents on the other.

Facilitating Access to Information for Research Purposes - A Comparative Survey