The rapid change of the culture of communication constantly poses new threats for the right to privacy. These do not only emanate from States, but also from private actors. The global network of digital information has turned the protection of privacy since a long time into an international challenge. In this arena, national legal systems and their underlying common values collide. This collection convenes contributions from European, Australian and US experts. They take on the challenge of providing an intercontinental analysis of the issue and answer the question how the right to privacy could be defended in future.
Domestic constitutions and courts applying international human rights conventions acknowledge the significance of the mass media for a democratic society, not only by granting special privileges but also by imposing enhanced duties and responsibilities to journalists and media companies. However, the challenges of media convergence, media ownership concentration and the internet have led to legal uncertainty. Should media privileges be maintained, and, if so, how is 'the media' to be defined? To what extent does media freedom as a legal concept also encompass bloggers who have not undertaken journalistic education? And how can a legal distinction be drawn between investigative journalism on the one hand and reporting on purely private matters on the other? To answer these questions, Jan Oster combines doctrinal and conceptual comparative analysis with descriptive and normative theory, and argues in favour of a media freedom principle based on the significance of the media for public discourse.
Internet governance is a simple term without a simple definition. In the name of Internet sovereignty, nations have begun to implement various regulations to control the flow of information within or across their virtual territorial boundaries. The unique interconnected and multilateral characteristics of the Internet renders it impossible for one nation alone to provide adequate solutions to managing the Internet. The author argues that many of the issues related to Internet governance should be allocated to international institutions and a nation's sovereign power over the Internet should be bounded by its commitments and responsibilities under international law. In the absence of a coherent regulatory framework, this book examines whether the existing international legal systems are sufficiently generic to accommodate the challenges brought about by technological developments.
Due to rapid developments in the communication sector, the right to privacy faces new challenges. The increasing digitization and internationalization of communication processes have raised a number of issues, and lead to conflicts wherever national legal systems and moral concepts collide. Particularly in the areas of data protection and liability of online service providers, universal approaches are required. This title presents positions of specialists in Europe, Australia, the US and Canada which contribute to the international dialogue and thereby offer a starting point for a sustainable policy for the protection of privacy rights
Over the last 15 years, privacy actions have been recognised at common law or in equity across common law jurisdictions, and statutory privacy protections have proliferated. Apex courts are now being called upon to articulate the law governing remedies, including in high-profile litigation concerning phone hacking, covert filming and release of personal information. Yet despite the practical significance of the courts' approach to damages, injunctions and other remedies for breach of privacy, very little has been written on the topic. This book comprehensively analyses these developments from a comparative perspective and provides solutions to issues which are coming to light as higher courts forge this remedial jurisprudence and practitioners look for guidance. Significantly, the essays are important not only for what they say about remedies, but also for the attention they give to the nature of the new privacy actions, providing deep insights into substantive law. The book includes contributions by academics, practitioners and judges from Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and the United States, who are expert in the legal disciplines implicated by privacy remedies, including torts, equity, public law and conflict of laws. By bringing together this range of perspectives, the book offers authoritative insights into this cutting-edge topic. It will be essential reading for all those seeking to understand and resolve the new issues associated with privacy remedies.
In this book, the protection of personal data is compared for eight EU member states,namely France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Sweden andthe Netherlands. The comparison of the countries is focused on government policiesfor the protection of personal data, the applicable laws and regulations, implementationof those laws and regulations, and supervision and enforcement. Although the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) harmonizes the protectionof personal data across the EU as of May 2018, its open norms in combination withcultural differences between countries result in differences in the practical implementation,interpretation and enforcement of personal data protection. With its focus on data protection law in practice, this book provides indepth insightsinto how different countries deal with data protection issues. The knowledge and bestpractices from these countries provide highly relevant material for legal professionals,data protection officers, policymakers, data protection authorities and academicsacross Europe. Bart Custers is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Center for Law andDigital Technologies of the Leiden Law School at Leiden University, the Netherlands.Alan M. Sears, Francien Dechesne, Ilina Georgieva and Tommaso Tani are all affiliated tothat same organization, of which Professor Simone van der Hof is the General Director.
"Crime stories attract audiences and social buzz, but they also serve as prisms for perceived threats. As immigration, technological change, and globalization reshape our world, anxiety spreads. Because journalism plays a role in how the public adjusts to moral and material upheaval, this unease raises the ethical stakes. Reporters can spread panic or encourage reconciliation by how they tell these stories. Murder in our Midst uses crime coverage in select North American and Western European countries as a key to examine culturally constructed concepts like privacy, public, public right to know, and justice. Working from close readings of news coverage, codes of ethics and style guides, and personal interviews with almost 200 news professionals, this book offers fertile material for a provocative conversation. We use our findings to divide the ten countries studied into three media models; we explore what the differing coverage decisions suggest about underlying attitudes to criminals and crime, and how justice in a democracy is best served. Today, journalists' work can be disseminated around the world without any consideration of whether what's being told (or how) might dissolve cultural differences or undermine each community's right to set its own standards to best reflect its citizens' values. At present, unique reporting practices persist among our three models, but the internet and social media threaten to dissolve distinctions and the cultural values they reflect. We need a journalism that both opens local conversations and bridges differences among nations. This book is a first step in that direction"--
Modern technology has enhanced many aspects of life, including classroom education. By offering virtual learning experiences, educational systems can become more efficient and effective at teaching the student population. The Handbook of Research on Collaborative Teaching Practice in Virtual Learning Environments highlights program developments in the realm of digital worlds in educational settings. Featuring pedagogical methods and topics relating to cooperative learning, hands-on curriculum, and meta-cognitive dimensions, this publication is a critical reference source for pre-service and in-service teachers, school administrators, higher education faculty, and researchers interested in virtual reality incorporation in the classroom.
The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 proclaimed a vision of freedom of expression exercised regardless of frontiers. Nonetheless, laws and norms regarding the freedom or limits of expression are typically established and understood at the national level. In today’s interconnected world, newfound threats to free expression have suddenly arisen. How can this fundamental right be secured at a global level? This volume brings together leading experts from a variety of fields to critically evaluate the extent to which global norms on freedom of expression and information have been established and which actors and institutions have contributed to their diffusion. The authors also consider ongoing and new challenges to these norms, from conflicts over hate speech and the rise of populism to authoritarian governments, as well as the profound disruption introduced by the internet. Together, the essays lay the groundwork for an international legal doctrine on global freedom of expression that considers issues such as access to government-held information, media diversity, and political speech. As the world risks renouncing previous commitments to the freedom of expression, Regardless of Frontiers serves as a timely reminder of just how much is at stake and what needs protecting.
Key chapters, written by leading experts across the field, engage with important ongoing debates in the field of EU administrative law, focusing on areas of topical interest such as financial markets, the growing security state and problematic common asylum procedures. In doing so, they provide a summary of what we know, don’t know and ought to know about EU administrative law. Examining the control functions of administrative law and the machinery for accountability, this Research Handbook eloquently challenges areas of authoritarian governance, such as the Eurozone and security state, where control and accountability are weak and tackles the seemingly insoluble question of citizen ‘voice’ and access to policy-making.
