In a case recently brought before the European Court of Justice
(ECJ), the Advocate General provided an opinion according to which
a candidate's examination script, as well as the comments made
on the script by the examiner, is personal data the candidate is
entitled to receive.
In that matter, a person who was a trainee accountant failed to
pass an examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
Ireland. He requested to receive his examination script, but the
Institute of Chartered Accountants refused to release it to him,
arguing that it is not personal data. The trainee accountant
initiated legal proceedings in Irish courts, and the case was
referred to the ECJ.
In her opinion submitted to the ECJ prior to its ruling, the ECJ
Advocate General noted that as the examination script links the
script to the examination candidate (directly or indirectly,
including when the exam script only bears an ID number or a bar
code) who produced it, it follows that the
