Law Commons^™

Public Access To Information In Civil Litigation Vs. Litigant's Demand For Privacy: Is The Vanishing Trial An Avoidable Consequence, Dennis J. Drasco

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Recently, the legal and academic communities have been studying the phenomenon of the "vanishing trial." The phenomenon is an observation of the fact that the American court system is experiencing a trend of shrinking trial dockets. At least one scholar has partially attributed the decline in trials to the value placed upon settlement rather than adjudication within our justice system. Those competing values have spawned a debate regarding the secrecy and confidentiality characteristic of settlements versus public access to information in civil litigation. Jurisdictions that have addressed the issue have noted the complexities involved in regard to the factors to …

Hippa And Patient Privacy: Tribal Policies As Added Means For Addressing Indian Health Disparities, Starla Kay Roels

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Privacy Gambit: Toward A Game Theoretic Approach To International Data Protection, Horace E. Anderson Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This article briefly explores several scenarios in which economic actors compete and cooperate in order to capture the value in personal information. The focus then shifts to one particular scenario: the ongoing interaction between the United States and the European Union in attempting to construct data protection regimes that serve the philosophies and citizens of each jurisdiction as well as provide a strategic economic advantage. A game theoretic model is presented to explain the course of dealings between the two actors, including both unilateral and bilateral actions. Part I ends with an exploration of opportunities for seizing competitive advantage, and …

Privacy Issues Affecting Employers, Employees, And Labor Organizations, Charles B. Craver

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Privacy issues arise regularly in employment environments. Employers frequently assert privacy rights when denying non-employee union organizers access to employment premises and limiting the distribution of union literature or the solicitation of authorization cards by current employees. On the other hand, when employers desire to monitor employee computer usage on firm computers to be sure they are not accessing inappropriate sites or engaging in other inappropriate electronic behavior, they give short shrift to employee privacy claims. When employer premises are open to the general public, non-employee access to external areas such as parking lots might provide an appropriate accommodation between …

Lost In Translation? Data Mining, National Security And The Adverse Inference Problem, Anita Ramasastry

Articles

To the extent that we permit data mining programs to proceed, they must provide adequate due process and redress mechanisms that permit individuals to clear their names. A crucial criteria for such a mechanism is to allow access to information that was used to make adverse assessments so that errors may be corrected. While some information may have to be kept secret for national security purposes, a degree of transparency is needed when individuals are trying to protect their right to travel or access government services free from suspicion.

Part II of this essay briefly outlines the government's ability to …

Family, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Based on contemporary privacy law, this entry discusses two different aspects of family privacy: (1) the marital relationship and (2) the parent-child relationship. Marital privacy protects several aspects of married life. The first form of marital privacy protects the very decision of whom to marry. While state laws generally establish who may marry whom, the Supreme Court has established the quasi-fundamental nature of the right to marry. The second form of marital privacy involves the right to relational privacy. This constitutionally developed right to marital privacy protects the relationship from undue interference, particularly in the context of sexual decision-making.

There …

A Taxonomy Of Privacy, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Privacy is a concept in disarray. Nobody can articulate what it means. As one commentator has observed, privacy suffers from an embarrassment of meanings. Privacy is far too vague a concept to guide adjudication and lawmaking, as abstract incantations of the importance of privacy do not fare well when pitted against more concretely-stated countervailing interests.

In 1960, the famous torts scholar William Prosser attempted to make sense of the landscape of privacy law by identifying four different interests. But Prosser focused only on tort law, and the law of information privacy is significantly more vast and complex, extending to Fourth …

A Brief History Of Information Privacy Law, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This book chapter provides a brief history of information privacy law in the United States from colonial times to the present. It discusses the development of the common law torts, Fourth Amendment law, the constitutional right to information privacy, numerous federal statutes pertaining to privacy, electronic surveillance laws, and more. It explores how the law has emerged and changed in response to new technologies that have increased the collection, dissemination, and use of personal information.

A Model Regime Of Privacy Protection, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

A series of major security breaches at companies with sensitive personal information has sparked significant attention to the problems with privacy protection in the United States. Currently, the privacy protections in the United States are riddled with gaps and weak spots. Although most industrialized nations have comprehensive data protection laws, the United States has maintained a sectoral approach where certain industries are covered and others are not. In particular, emerging companies known as "commercial data brokers" have frequently slipped through the cracks of U.S. privacy law. In this article, the authors propose a Model Privacy Regime to address the problems …

A Tale Of Two Bloggers: Free Speech And Privacy In The Blogosphere, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This short essay was written for the symposium, Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship, held at Harvard Law School on April 27-28, 2006. In this essay, Professor Solove examines Glenn Reynold's new book, An Army of Davids, which champions little guy bloggers (the Davids) who are taking on mainstream media entities (the Goliaths).

Who exactly is David? We have a rather romantic conception of bloggers; we envision Eugene Volokh, but most bloggers are probably more akin to Jessica Cutler, the U.S. Senate staffer who blogged about sex gossip. The average blogger is a teenager writing an online diary, not …

Anglo-American Privacy And Surveillance, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The United States’ Terrorism Surveillance Program represents just one of many expansions in surveillance since 9/11, as legal controls previously introduced to protect citizens’ privacy and to prevent the misuse of surveillance powers have been relaxed. What makes the situation qualitatively different now is not just the lowering of the bar: digitization and the rapid advancement of technology mean that the type and volume of information currently available eclipse that of previous generations. The issue is not confined to the United States. Despite the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into British law, the United Kingdom also appears …

Transaction Surveillance By The Government, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This symposium article is the second of two on regulation of government efforts to obtain recorded information for criminal prosecutions. More specifically, it explores the scope and regulation of "transaction surveillance," which it defines as government attempts to access already existing records, either physically or through data banks, and government efforts to obtain, in real-time or otherwise, "catalogic data" (the identifying signals of a transaction, such as the address of an email recipient). Transaction surveillance is a potent way of discovering and making inferences about a person's activities, character and identity. Yet, despite a bewildering array of statutorily created authorization …

Getting Real About Privacy: Eccentric Expectations In The Post-9/11 World, Jeffrey A. Breinholt

ExpressO

What if science developed technology that would eliminate violent crime on American streets entirely, without jeopardizing civil liberties or personal privacy? This article describes such a scenario, and uses it to take a critical look at some of legal commentary claiming that Americans are bound to lose their rights and privacy if they fail to object to modern tools of domestic security. It concludes that those who have criticize modern scientific applications to the security challenge are overlooking well-established legal doctrines, based on eccentric fears of technology and the nation's law enforcers.

'Code' And The Slow Erosion Of Privacy, Bert-Jaap Koops, Ronald Leenes

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The notion of software code replacing legal code as a mechanism to control human behavior--"code as law"--is often illustrated with examples in intellectual property and freedom of speech. This Article examines the neglected issue of the impact of "code as law" on privacy. To what extent is privacy-related "code" being used, either to undermine or to enhance privacy? On the basis of cases in the domains of law enforcement, national security, E-government, and commerce, it is concluded that technology rarely incorporates specific privacy-related norms. At the same time, however, technology very often does have clear effects on privacy, as it …

Home As A Legal Concept, Benjamin Barros

ExpressO

This article, which is the first comprehensive discussion of the American legal concept of home, makes two major contributions. First, the article systematically examines how homes are treated more favorably than other types of property in a wide range of legal contexts, including criminal law and procedure, torts, privacy, landlord-tenant, debtor-creditor, family law, and income taxation. Second, the article considers the normative issue of whether this favorable treatment is justified. The article draws from material on the psychological concept of home and the cultural history of home throughout this analysis, providing insight into the interests at stake in various legal …

7th Annual Open Government Summit: Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, 2005, Department Of Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Privacies: Philosophical Evaluations, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

This fine collection of essays on privacy crosses disciplinary and national boundaries, bringing together 13 scholars from law, philosophy, political theory, and film studies to consider “various aspects of the problematic of the private.” As the editor, Beate Rössler, explains this “problematic,” current debates about the value and limits of privacy—such as the reach of information technology or the private lives of public figures—pose afresh more fundamental philosophical questions about privacy: What is the normative grounding for a right to privacy? How does such a right relate to identity and integrity? What is the demarcation in persons’ lives between the …

‘Code’ And The Slow Erosion Of Privacy, Ronald Leenes, Bert-Jaap Koops

ExpressO

The notion of software code replacing legal code as a mechanism to control human behavior – ‘code as law’ – is often illustrated with examples in intellectual property and freedom of speech. This article examines the neglected issue of the impact of ‘code as law’ on privacy. To what extent is privacy-related ‘code’ being used, either to undermine or to enhance privacy? On the basis of cases in the domains of law enforcement, national security, E-government, and commerce, it is concluded that technology rarely incorporates specific privacy-related norms. At the same time, however, technology very often does have clear effects …

Reconciling Consent Searches And Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence: Incorporating Privacy Into The Test For Valid Consent Searches, David J. Housholder

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Fourth Amendment states: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Perhaps the most significant exception to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment is the consent search, which requires no warrant, exigent circumstances, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion.

Some scholars have suggested that the Supreme Court's voluntariness standard for determining consensual searches misperceives …

Reviving A Natural Right: The Freedom Of Autonomy Amendment, Michael Anthony Lawrence

ExpressO

America in the early twenty-first century is a place where oppressive state constitutional amendments discriminate against millions of gay Americans; where compassionate end-of-life choice is illegal in 49 states and where the one state where it is legal is being sued by the U.S. government; where hundreds of thousands are arrested yearly and tens of thousands are in prison for private possession or use of marijuana; where a woman’s right to maintain control over her own reproductive decisions hangs by a thread; and where religious freedom is under relentless attack.

Whatever became of the ideal that represented the very foundation …

Reviving A Natural Right: The Freedom Of Autonomy Amendment, Michael Anthony Lawrence

ExpressO

Reviving a Natural Right: The Freedom of Autonomy Amendment

Michael Anthony Lawrence

Something is wrong in twenty-first century America when it comes to recognizing certain “self-evident truths” of freedom identified in its founding document nearly 23 decades ago. In particular, the United States today fails to uphold the core principle of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This description was more than just an accidental well-turned phrase – as demonstrated by the historical record, …

Constitutional Law—The Fourth Amendment Challenge To Dna Sampling Of Arrestees Pursuant To The Justice For All Act Of 2004: A Proposed Modification To The Traditional Fourth Amendment Test Of Reasonableness, Kimberly A. Polanco

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Subpoenas And Privacy, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This symposium article, the first of two on regulation of government's efforts to obtain paper and digital records of our activities, analyzes the constitutional legitimacy of subpoenas. Whether issued by a grand jury or an administrative agency, subpoenas are extremely easy to enforce, merely requiring the government to demonstrate that the items sought pursuant to the subpoena are "relevant" to a investigation. Yet today subpoenas and pseudo-subpoenas are routinely used not only to obtain business records and the like, but also documents containing significant amounts of personal information about individuals, including medical, financial, and email records. Part I provides an …

Material Vulnerabilities: Data Privacy, Corporate Information Security And Securities Regulation, Andrea M. Matwyshyn

ExpressO

This article undertakes a normative and empirical legal inquiry into the manner information security vulnerabilities are being addressed through law and in the marketplace. Specifically, this article questions the current legislative paradigm for information security regulation by presenting a critique grounded in information security and cryptography theory. Consequently, this article advocates shifting our regulatory approach to a process-based security paradigm that focuses on improving security of our system as a whole. Finally, this article argues that in order to accomplish this shift with least disruption to current legal and economic processes, expanding an existing set of well-functioning legal structures is …

Identity Crisis: United States V. Hiibel And The Continued Erosion Of Privacy Rights, Beth Rosenblum

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy And The Criminal Arrestee Or Suspect: In Search Of A Right, In Need Of A Rule, Sadiq Reza

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Spyware And The Limits Of Surveillance Law, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

For policymakers, litigants, and commentators seeking to address the threats digital technology poses for privacy, electronic surveillance law remains a weapon of choice. The debate over how best to respond to the spyware problem provides only the most recent illustration of that fact. Although there is much controversy over how to define spyware, that label encompasses at least some software that monitors a computer user's electronic communications. Federal surveillance statutes thus present an intuitive fit for responding to the regulatory challenges of spyware, because those statutes bar the unauthorized acquisition of electronic communications and related data in some circumstances. Indeed, …

Hospital Chaplaincy Under The Hipaa Privacy Rule: Health Care Or Just Visiting The Sick, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Controlling Identity: Plessy, Privacy, And Racial Defamation, Jonathan Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the origins of privacy law in early twentieth century America in relation to the legal solidification of Jim Crow in the aftermath of Plessy v. Ferguson. It considers some distinctively southern aspects of the origins of the right to privacy and argues that by viewing privacy, racial defamation, and Jim Crow in relation to each other, we can gain new insights into each-coming to understand that Plessy was not just about controlling space, or property, or even equality but also about controlling identity itself, and coming to see that in its origins, the right to privacy had …

The Dangers Of Fighting Terrorism With Technocommunitarianism: Constitutional Protections Of Free Expression, Exploration, And Unmonitored Activity In Urban Spaces, Marc Jonathan Blitz

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Part I of this article examines how some commentators can plausibly argue that constitutional liberty and privacy protections do not protect the individual liberty and privacy that modern individuals have come to expect in many public spaces, particularly in urban environments. Constitutional liberalism, this section points out, makes this question a difficult one, because it is marked by scrupulous neutrality towards different visions of “the good life.” In other words, the constitutional order does not condemn those who choose a communitarian way of life and favor those who prefer individualism. Rather, it tolerates both of these (and other) preferences about …