Full Description
Rapid technological change, the advent of Big Data, and the creation of society-wide government surveillance programs have transformed the accessibility of highly personal information; these developments have highlighted the ambiguous treatment of privacy and personal intimacy. National legal systems vouchsafe and define "privacy," and its first cousin "dignity," in different ways that reflect local legal and cultural values. Yet, in an increasingly globalized world, purely local protection of privacy interests may prove insufficient to safeguard effectively fundamental autonomy interests - interests that lie at the core of self-definition, personal autonomy, and freedom.
Privacy Revisited articulates the legal meanings of privacy and dignity through the lens of comparative law, and argues that the concept of privacy requires a more systematic approach if it is to be useful in framing and protecting certain fundamental autonomy interests. The book begins by providing relevant, and reasonably detailed, information about both the substantive and procedural protections of privacy/dignity in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and among Council of Europe member states. Second, the book explores the inherent tension between affording significant legal protection to the right of privacy (or human dignity) and securing expressive freedoms, notably including the freedom of speech and of the press. The author then posits that the protection of privacy helps to illuminate some of the underlying social and political values that lead the U.S. to fail to protect privacy as reliably or as comprehensively as other liberal democracies. Finally, the book establishes that although privacy and speech come into conflict with some regularity, it is both useful and necessary to start thinking about the important ways in which both rights are integral to the maintenance of democratic self-government.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
A Prolegomenon to Privacy: On the Potential Virtues and Benefits of a Comparative Legal Analysis of the "Right To Be Let Alone"
Chapter 2: The United States
The Polysemy of Privacy: An Analysis of the Many Faces
and Facets of the Right of Privacy in the Contemporary United States
Chapter 3: Canada
Privacy in Canada: Taming a Notoriously Protean Legal Concept with a Coherent and Purposive Approach
Chapter 4: The Republic of South Africa
Privacy in South Africa: Deploying Dignity, Equality, and Freedom to Safeguard the Process of Democratic Self-Government
Chapter 5: The United Kingdom
Privacy in the United Kingdom: On the Perils and Promise of
Weak-Form Judicial Review in Securing Privacy Rights
Chapter 6: The European Court of Human Rights
Privacy Rights in Europe: Reconciling Privacy and Speech in the Era of Big Data
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Bringing Meiklejohn to Privacy: On the Essential Complementarity of Privacy and Speech
Index
