hullaballoo wrote: » I don't believe that this isn't related to college course work. However, I'll take the bait. The right to privacy is relatively new. It was created here under the doctrine of unenumerated constitutional rights in the 1960s, I think. On the other hand, defamation is an ancient common law tort, attested as early as the second century as a Roman edict. It has been around as long as advanced civilisation, essentially. As such, it is not conceivable that there could have been anything but divergent development of the doctrines. Ideologically, the two are distinct principles: on the one hand you have a remedy against a wrong (the defamatory statement) on the other, you have a pre-emptive right to privacy. Enforcing that right is what is problematic because often, once the right has been breached, the protection of the right is lost in its totality. In other words, if there is a breach of privacy by way of a revelation about someone for example, it is almost impossible for that person to get restitution. There may be a crossover between the two principles from the perspective of an interference with a person's right to his good name and, by corollary, maintaining their privacy? I cannot see any intrinsic link between the two. Can you provide a source for the theory that there is convergence or otherwise between privacy and defamation? Am I on the right track here or are you asking something different?
lons3 wrote: » 2. I don't know why I wrote law of privacy there is no such thing.
hullaballoo wrote: » I think there is such a thing. In Kennedy & Anor. v. Ireland [1987] I.R. 587 Hamilton P. stated (at page 592):- "Though not specifically guaranteed by the Constitution the right of privacy is one of the fundamental personal rights of the citizen which flow from the Christian and democratic nature of the State. It is not an unqualified right. Its exercise may be restricted by the constitutional rights of others, or by the requirements of the common good and it is subject to the requirements of public order and morality." Anyway, it's not a fully developed right here and I wouldn't be advising anyone to bring a case for a breach of it any time soon.
