Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2015
Journal Title
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
ISSN
0740-4824
Abstract
In the last several years, a consensus has developed that a wide gulf exists between European and American privacy law, although division still exists on whether European law is “more protective” or simply “home to different intuitive sensibilities” than American law. Existing research on the development of European privacy law has focused on two areas: nineteenth-century traditions of honor and dueling, which gave rise to a concept of privacy linked to dignity, and the totalitarian dictatorships of the twentieth century, in reaction to which privacy protected liberty. This Article offers a contrasting view by showing that European privacy law in the post-World War II era was intended to defend a particular aspect of the “private sphere” — marriage, reproduction, and the family — from the type of omnipresent scrutiny that had been a core aspect of the racial state under the Nazi regime. Although both European and American concepts of privacy have undoubtedly changed over time, understanding the original intent embedded in European privacy law shows that divergence between the two systems has been largely misunderstood.
First Page
749
Last Page
790
Num Pages
42
Volume Number
40
Issue Number
3
Publisher
Brooklyn Law School
Recommended Citation
Hannah Bloch-Wehba,
Confronting Totalitarianism at Home: The Roots of European Privacy Protections,
40
Brook. J. Int'l L.
749
(2015).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1405