Privatumo teisės doktrinos kaita JAV

Abstract

This article focuses on privacy protection in United States. To examine the arguments that were used to formulate the legal doctrines that support privacy in American law, the author analyzes three stages of development: pre-1890 (utilizing principles derived from property rights to protect privacy); 1890 to 1965 (generally considered the era during which a right to privacy was developed, largely as a part of tort law) and post-1965 (a major expansion of the right to privacy on constitutional basis).
Protection of the right of privacy has developed slowly and uncertainly, but firmly, partly through legislation and partly through expansion of the common law. Analysis of privacy cases revealed that they fell into such categories: intrusion upon person’s solitude, public disclosure of embarrassing private facts, publicity that places a person in a false light in the public eyes.
American case law emphasizes the absolute primacy of the freedom of expression of opinion. The individual must show both that the asserted facts are untrue and that the defendant acted with actual malice. Only in relation to private persons, who generally have means of defence against press, does the Supreme Court allow First Amendment rights and liability for negligently made false assertions that are proven as such to coexist.