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.

1. Introduction: Human Rights and Private Law - Privacy as AutonomyKATJA S ZIEGLERPart I Cross-Sectional Issues: Human Rights and Private LawPart I.A Privacy as a Human Right in Conflict with Other Human Rights2. The Core Business of Privacy Law: Protecting AutonomyHANS NIEUWENHUISPart I.B Public-Private Law Cross-over: Horizontality of Human Rights3. Human Rights and Private LawLORENZ FASTRICH4. Horizontality and the Human Rights Act 1998ALISON L YOUNG5. Horizontal Effect of Fundamental Rights, Privacy and Social JusticeAURELIA COLOMBI CIACCHIPart I.C Privacy and Tort Law6. A Right to Privacy?NW BARBER7. Privacy and Tort DesignRODERICK BAGSHAW8. Damages as a Remedy for Infringements upon PrivacySIEWERT LINDENBERGHPart II Restraints on Privacy by Private Parties: Specific Issue AreasPart II.A Contract Law9. Privacy of ContractHENRICUS J SNIJDERS10. Discrimination in Private Law - New European Principles and the Freedom of ContractDAGMAR COESTER-WALTJENPart II.B Labour Law11. Protection of Employees' Individual Rights in the Employer-Employee RelationshipMICHAEL COESTER12. Privacy, Employment and the Human Rights Act 1998MARK FREEDLANDPart II.C Freedom of Expression and Personality Rights: Intellectual Property Law, Media Law13. Constitutional Protection of Authors' Moral Rights in the European Union - Between Privacy, Property and the Regulation of the EconomyJOSEF DREXL14. Private Control/Public SpeechLESLIE KIM TREIGER-BAR-AM AND MICHAEL SPENCE15. The Princess and the Press:Privacy after Caroline von Hannover v GermanyKATJA S ZIEGLER