Privacy Revisited

A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr

Articulates the legal meanings of privacy and dignity through the lens of comparative law
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
Provides essential 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
Explores the inherent tension between affording significant legal protection to the right of privacy and securing expressive freedoms, notably including the freedom of speech and of the press
Considers the effect of protection of privacy on underlying social and political values
Highlights the importance of privacy and speech rights to the maintenance of democratic self-government

Privacy Revisited

A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr

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.

Privacy Revisited

A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr

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

Privacy Revisited

A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr

Author Information

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr, John S. Stone Chair, Director of Faculty Research, and Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr. is the John S. Stone Chair, Director of Faculty Research, and Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. He clerked for the Honorable Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and was an associate with Covington & Burling. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Alabama School of Law, Professor Krotoszynski served on the law faculties of Washington and Lee University and the Indiana University McKinney School of Law.

Privacy Revisited

A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr

Reviews and Awards

"For those seeking a lucid analysis of the development (or lack thereof) of constitutional privacy law in the jurisdictions considered, Krotoszynski provides a comprehensive and thought-provoking overview ... Privacy Revisited is required reading for academics and practitioners looking to develop their understanding of constitutional privacy law across Western liberal democracies." - Joe Purshouse, University of East Anglia (Cambridge Law Journal)

"Privacy Revisited is a truly remarkable book. Successfully deploying an analytic approach which is both comparative and contextual is a wonderful achievement in itself, but Krotoszynski does more. He offers a framework for thinking about privacy as a global human right. In so doing, he shows that the way privacy is understood in the United States means that privacy is protected neither 'as reliably or as comprehensively' as it is in other liberal democracies. This argument is bracing and persuasive, and it makes a singularly important contribution to scholarship and public discourse." - Austin Sarat, Associate Dean of the Faculty, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science, and Director, Mellon Project on Student-Faculty Research, Amherst College

"Professor Krotoszynski provides a valuable overview of how several constitutional systems accommodate competing interests in privacy, speech, and democracy. He shows how scholarship in comparative law can help one think about one's own legal system while remaining sensitive to the different cultural and institutional settings of each nation's law. A very useful contribution." - Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

"I loved the book because it is such a smart and dynamic engagement with comparative law's current malaise... In this wide-ranging work we see the challenges, shortcomings, and promise of [several] competing approaches to comparative law. Who among us hasn't struggled with this, the comparatist's fundamental dilemma? Too few of us are willing to live that struggle so openly and honestly as Krotoszynski. He has given us a compelling invitation to keep hammering away at that methodological and theoretical problem. Whatever we might mean by privacy, Krotoszynski isn't going to let us mask our disciplinary challenges." - Russell Miller, Jotwell