The corporation and privacy protection:Ought English law to be further developed to provide fuller protection for the privacy of the corporation?

摘要

This thesis investigates whether English law ought to be further developed to provide fuller protection for the privacy of the corporation.As an essential preliminary step, the thesis first explores the concept of privacy in general – privacy interests, definitions of privacy, rationales of privacy; and then proceeds to formulate a concept of privacy for the corporation.The thesis advances to consider the level of protection of the privacy of the corporation in English law, and finds that only a limited level of protection is provided – in broadcasting matters – by the Broadcasting Act 1996.The thesis then proceeds to critically examine whether the extended action for breach of confidence which protects an individual's privacy can and ought to be further developed to provide protection for the corporation’s privacy, and argues that the corporation’s privacy can and ought to be so developed.The thesis also investigates whether, in the alternative, the corporation’s privacy would be more suitably protected if it were developed as a property right under Article 1 of Protocol 1 ECHR, and finds that Article 1 of Protocol 1 would not suitably protect the corporation’s privacy. Instead, the thesis upholds the extended action for breach of confidence as a more natural and suitable home for the protection of the privacy of the corporation in English law.The thesis concludes with recommendations on the structural framework for the proposed protection of the corporation’s privacy under the extended action for breach of confidence.This research is undertaken primarily through doctrinal analysis; it analyses English Courts’ jurisprudence, the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence, as well as the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union where it concerns the administration of Article 8 ECHR. Theoretical arguments are also engaged in when it comes to defining and justifying the protection of the corporation’s privacy.