Open AccessFrom Right to Wrong: Grounding a "Right" to Privacy in the "Wrongs" of Tort
Author(s) -
Chris Hunt
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alberta law review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-8356
pISSN - 0002-4821
DOI - 10.29173/alr26
Subject(s) - trespass , tort , right to privacy , privacy laws of the united states , law , the right to privacy , expectation of privacy , work (physics) , internet privacy , law and economics , political science , sociology , computer science , information privacy , liability , engineering , supreme court , mechanical engineering , human rights
This article discusses the theoretical foundations for a common law tort of invasion of privacy. The author argues that invading a person’s “right” to privacy is conduct that can be regarded as a tortious “wrong.” He illustrates this by integrating privacyinto the work of several leading tort theorists and also by drawing analogies between privacy and defamation, on the one hand, and battery and trespass, on the other. He concludes that asking tort to protect privacy does not ask it to do work of a kind any different in substance from that which it has long been doing.