Human Rights and Private Law: Privacy as Autonomy(Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law)

Privacy today is much debated as an individual's right against real or feared intrusions by the state, as exemplified by proposed identity cards and surveillance measures in the United Kingdom. In contrast, invasions of privacy by private individuals or bodies tend to arouse less concern. This book attempts to fill the gap by looking at the horizontal application of human rights after Douglas v Hello, Campbell v MGN and Caroline von Hannover v Germany. It provides a conceptual and theoretical framework and also considers specific particularly sensitive areas of law relating to privacy protection, such as intellectual property, employment and media law. It provides comparative perspectives by relating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which serves as a focal point, to UK, Dutch, German and European Communities law. Several common threads are revealed running across jurisdictions and different areas of law and aspects of privacy. The most notable is the definition of privacy in terms of the autonomy of the individual, a notion associated with the liberal state in the classic sense but now acquiring more content as a human right also linked to ideas of social justice.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Human Rights and Private Law - Privacy as Autonomy KATJA S ZIEGLER Part I Cross-Sectional Issues: Human Rights and Private Law Part I.A Privacy as a Human Right in Conflict with Other Human Rights 2. The Core Business of Privacy Law: Protecting Autonomy HANS NIEUWENHUIS Part I.B Public-Private Law Cross-over: Horizontality of Human Rights 3. Human Rights and Private Law LORENZ FASTRICH 4. Horizontality and the Human Rights Act 1998 ALISON L YOUNG 5. Horizontal Effect of Fundamental Rights, Privacy and Social Justice AURELIA COLOMBI CIACCHI Part I.C Privacy and Tort Law 6. A Right to Privacy? NW BARBER 7. Privacy and Tort Design RODERICK BAGSHAW 8. Damages as a Remedy for Infringements upon Privacy SIEWERT LINDENBERGH Part II Restraints on Privacy by Private Parties: Specific Issue Areas Part II.A Contract Law 9. Privacy of Contract HENRICUS J SNIJDERS 10. Discrimination in Private Law – New European Principles and the Freedom of Contract DAGMAR COESTER-WALTJEN Part II.B Labour Law 11. Protection of Employees' Individual Rights in the Employer-Employee Relationship MICHAEL COESTER 12. Privacy, Employment and the Human Rights Act 1998 MARK FREEDLAND Part II.C Freedom of Expression and Personality Rights: Intellectual Property Law, Media Law 13. Constitutional Protection of Authors' Moral Rights in the European Union – Between Privacy, Property and the Regulation of the Economy JOSEF DREXL 14. Private Control/Public Speech LESLIE KIM TREIGER-BAR-AM AND MICHAEL SPENCE 15. The Princess and the Press:Privacy after Caroline von Hannover v Germany KATJA S ZIEGLER

About the Author :
Katja S Ziegler is Sir Robert Jennings Chair in International Law at the University of Leicester.

Review :
...this book makes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning literature on privacy...a well-coordinated collection of thoughtful and informative essays. …this is a very useful contribution to the growing literature on what is emerging as a key battlefield of ideas.