Privacy Digest

Different Conceptions of Privacy: America vs. England :: Ephilosopher :: Philosophy News, Research and Philosophical Discussion: "Professors Neil M. Richards and Daniel J. Solove have posted on SSRN their new article, Privacy's Other Path: Recovering the Law of Confidentiality, forthcoming 96 Georgetown Law Journal __ (2007). It can be obtained for free here .

Privacy law in America and England developed based on very different conceptions of privacy. In this article, Professors Richards and Solove explore how in America, Samuel Warren, Louis Brandeis, and later William Prosser created a new conception of privacy based on the individual's 'inviolate personality.' English law, however, rejected Warren and Brandeis's conception of privacy and developed a conception of privacy as confidentiality from the same sources used by Warren and Brandeis. Today, in contrast to the individualistic conception of privacy in American law, the English law of confidence recognizes and enforces expectations of trust within relationships. Richards and Solove explore how and why privacy law developed so differently in America and England. Understanding the origins and developments of privacy law's divergent paths reveals that each body of law's conception of privacy has much to teach the other. "