Explores the law on rights of personality in Scotland compared to other jurisdictionsTaking a comparative perspective, this book explores the trends and issues affecting the law on rights of personality in jurisdictions drawn from the families of common law, civilian law, and mixed legal systems. The main focus is on the private law of personality rights, with due regard paid to the impact of constitutional legislation and other instruments protecting human rights.
This book aims to investigate the way in which personality rights are protected in China through a comparative and cross-cultural lens drawing on perspectives from Europe and elsewhere in the world. Currently, the question whether or not to incorporate a special law on personal rights – the right to life, the right to health, and the rights to reputation and privacy – into a future Chinese Civil Code is heatedly debated in the Chinese legal community. The essential topics that are addressed in this book include general issues of personality rights, personality rights in Constitutional law, personality rights in private law, the legislative development of personality rights in China, case studies of the right to privacy, personality rights in the mass media and the internet, competition law aspects of the right of publicity, the protection of patients’ personal information, and personality rights in the family context. The book offers a broad investigation of personality rights protection in both China and Europe and provides the first substantive comparison of the Chinese and European regimes. The project is conceived as a joint effort on the part of a carefully chosen team of Chinese and European academics, working closely together. The team consists of both senior scholars and young researchers led by well-known experts in the field of comparative tort law.
Academics and practitioners are currently divided on the issues involved in permitting and regulating the commercial exploitation of publicity. 'Publicity' is the practice of using an individual's name, image and reputation to promote products or to provide media coverage, often in gossip magazines and the tabloid press. This book provides a theoretical and multi-jurisdictional review of the nature of publicity practice and its appropriate legal regulation. The book includes a detailed exploration of the justifications advanced in favour of publicity rights and those that are advanced against. Removing the analysis from any one jurisdiction the book examines current academic and judicial perspectives on publicity rights in a range of jurisdictions, drawing out similarities and differences, and revealing a picture of current thinking and practice which is intellectually incoherent. By then clearly defining the practice of publicity and examining justifications for and against, the author is able to bring the nature and shape of the right of publicity into much sharper focus. The book includes a careful consideration of possible limits to any right of publicity, the potential for assigning publicity rights or transferring them post mortem, and whether defences can be offered. The author concludes by arguing for a publicity right which provides a degree of protection for the individual but which is significantly curtailed to recognise valid competing interests. This is a work which will be of interest to academics and practitioners working in the field of publicity, privacy and intellectual property.
A comparative investigation into the revolution in private law in the era of human rights Scotland and South Africa are mixed jurisdictions, combining features of common law and civil law traditions. Over the last decade a shared feature in both Scotland and South Africa has been a new and intense focus on human rights. In Scotland the European Convention on Human Rights now constitutes an important element in the foundation of all domestic law. Similarly, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, adopted in 1996, has as its cornerstone a Bill of Rights that binds not only the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state, but also private parties. Of course the "constitutional moments" from which these documents sprang were very different and the Scottish and South African experience in some aspects could not be more dissimilar. Yet in many respects the parallels are close and compelling. This book, written by experts from both jurisdictions, examines exactly how human-rights provisions influence private law, looking at all branches of the subject. Moreover, it gives a unique perspective by comparing the approach in these kindred legal systems, thus providing a benchmark for both.
Media and Entertainment Law presents a contemporary analysis of the law relating to the media and entertainment industry both in terms of its practical application and its theoretical framework. Looking at key aspects such as TV and radio broadcasting, the print press, the music industry, online news and entertainment and social networking sites, this textbook provides students with detailed coverage of the key principles, cases and legislation as well as a critical analysis of regulatory bodies such as the Press Complaints Commission and OFCOM. Media and Entertainment Law is also the first book to discuss superinjunctions and the phone-hacking scandal involving News of the World.
The delict of iniuria is among the most sophisticated products of the Roman legal tradition. The original focus of the delict was assault, although iniuria-literally a wrong or unlawful act-indicated a very wide potential scope. Yet it quickly grew to include sexual harassment and defamation, and by the first century CE it had been re-oriented around the concept of contumelia so as to incorporate a range of new wrongs, including insult and invasion of privacy. In truth, it now comprised all attacks on personality. It is the Roman delict of iniuria which forms the foundation of both the South African and-more controversially-Scots laws of injuries to personality. On the other hand, iniuria is a concept formally alien to English law. But as its title suggests, this book of essays is representative of a species of legal scholarship best described as 'oxymoronic comparative law', employing a concept peculiar to one legal tradition in order to interrogate another where, apparently, it does not belong. Addressing a series of doctrinal puzzles within the law of assault, defamation and breach of privacy, it considers in what respects the Roman delict of iniuria overlaps with its modern counterparts in England, Scotland and South Africa; the differences and similarities between the analytical frameworks employed in the ancient and modern law; and the degree to which the Roman proto-delict points the way to future developments in each of these three legal systems.
This collection of essays was written in honour of David Vaver, who recently retired as Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law and Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at the University of Oxford. The essays, written by some of the world's leading academics, practitioners and judges in the field of intellectual property law, take as their starting point the common assumption that the patent, copyright and trade mark laws within members of the 'common law family' (Australia, Canada, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and so on) share some sort of common tradition. The contributors examine, in relation to particular topics, the extent to which such a shared view of the field exists in the face of other forces that are producing divergence. The essays discuss, inter alia, issues concerning court practices, the medical treatment exception, non-obviousness and sufficiency in patent law, originality and exceptions in copyright law, unfair competition law, and cross-border goodwill and dilution in trade mark law.
Returning to a theme featured in some of the earlier volumes in the Edinburgh Studies in Law series, this volume offers an in-depth study of 'mixed jurisdictions' - legal systems which combine elements of the Anglo-American Common Law and the European Civil Law traditions. This new collection of essays compares key areas of private law in Scotland and Louisiana. In thirteen chapters, written by distinguished scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, it explores not only legal rules but also the reasons for the rules, discussing legal history, social and cultural factors, and the law in practice, in order to account for patterns of similarity and difference. Contributions are drawn from the Law Schools of Tulane University, Louisiana State University, Loyola University New Orleans, the American University Washington DC, and the Universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Edinburgh.
Media and Entertainment Law presents a contemporary analysis of the law relating to the media and entertainment industry both in terms of its practical application and its theoretical framework. It provides a clear, current and comprehensive account of this exciting subject. Fully updated and revised, this second edition is one of the first texts to contain a full analysis of the Leveson Inquiry and the implications for our press and media that are arising from it. The new edition contains; a new chapter analysing the Defamation Act 2013; the Digital Economy Act 2010 which aimed to toughen up against copyright infringement online and has been subject to parliamentary review since coming into power; and the liability of internet service providers, including recent cases such as Tamiz vs Google 2012, which goes some way to define the extent to which an ISP may or may not be found liable for their bloggers content. With integrated coverage of Scots and Northern Irish law, Media and Entertainment Law also highlights comparisons with similar overseas jurisdictions, such as with the liability of ISPs where there are differences in both US and European law, in order to help students demonstrate an awareness of media laws, which may then influence UK legislation. Looking at key aspects such as TV and radio broadcasting, the print press, the music industry, online news and entertainment and social networking sites, this text provides detailed coverage of the key principles, cases and legislation as well as a critical analysis of regulatory bodies such as OFCOM and the new regulator for the UK's newspapers and magazines (and online editions), the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso). The text also provides the most comprehensive and up to date coverage of the law relating to Intellectual Property law for the entertainment industry with recent changes in EU law relating to performers' rights. See what goes behind the writing of Media & Entertainment Law: http://youtu.be/XiCGmnRDvb0
This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of civil liability for invasion of personality interests in Europe. It is the final product of the collaboration of twenty-seven scholars and includes case studies of fourteen European jurisdictions, as well as an introductory chapter written from a US perspective. The case studies focus in particular on the legal protection of honour and reputation, privacy, self-determination and image. This volume aims to detect hidden similarities (the 'common core') in the actual legal treatment accorded by different European countries to personal interests which in some of these countries qualify as 'personality rights', and also to detect hidden disparities in the 'law in action' of countries whose 'law in the books' seem to protect one and the same personality interest in the same way.
