New Dimensions in Privacy Law: International and Comparative Perspectives

The challenges faced by privacy laws in changing technological, commercial and social environments are considered in this broad-ranging 2006 examination of privacy law. The book encompasses three overlapping areas of analysis: privacy protection under the general law; legislative measures for data protection in digital communications networks; and the influence of transnational agreements and other pressures toward harmonised privacy standards. Leading, internationally recognised authors discuss developments across these three areas in the UK, Europe, the US, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Australia and New Zealand. Chapters draw on doctrinal and historical analysis of case law, theoretical approaches to both freedom of speech and privacy, and the interaction of law and communications technologies in order to examine present and future challenges to law's engagement with privacy.

1. New dimensions in privacy: communications technologies, media practices and law Andrew T. Kenyon and Megan Richardson; 2. Privacy and freedom of speech Eric Barendt; 3. Revisiting the American action for public disclosure of private facts Brian C. Murchison; 4. The internet and the private life in Europe: risks and aspirations Yves Poullet and J. Marc Dinant; 5. APEC's privacy framework sets a new low standard for the Asia-Pacific Graham Greenleaf; 6. Copyright, privacy and Digital Rights Management (DRM) David Lindsay and Sam Ricketson; 7. Why there will never be an English common law privacy tort Raymond Wacks; 8. The 'right' of privacy in England and Strasbourg compared Gavin Phillipson; 9. Privacy and constitutions Kenneth J. Keith; 10. Celebrity privacy and benefits of simple history Megan Richardson and Lesley Hitchens; Bibliography.