Recognition and Protection of Personality Rights: Classification and Typology
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Johann Neethling
Abstract
In this article the premise is that personality interests exist in factual reality independently of any legal recognition. This emphasis on the pre-legal existence of individual personality interests is not merely of philosophical interest, but of cardinal jurisprudential and practical significance as it brings to the fore the fact that the qualities of personality interests are not determined by legal principles, but primarily by their nature in the sphere of factual reality. A jurisprudential definition and delineation of personality interests, which is essential to enable protective measures to be properly applied in practice, does not detract from this. This classification and typology therefore take account of factual reality, supplemented on a comparative law approach by the personality rights identified and delimited by jurists, the courts and legislatures, as well as typical examples of infringements of personality sanctioned by the different legal systems. Accordingly, the following classification and typology of personality rights are proposed: the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to physical liberty, the right to reputation, the right to dignity, the right to feelings, the right to privacy, and the right to identity.
Endnote
This article is adapted from the author’s keynote address at the 17th Annual Conference on European Tort Law, Vienna, Austria on 5–7 April 2018.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Recognition and Protection of Personality Rights: Classification and Typology
- Supply Chain Liability for Workers’ Injuries – Lessons to be Learned from Products Liability?
- Case Commentary
- A Dangerous Method: Correlations and Proof of Causation in Vaccine Related Injuries
- Review Article
- All You Ever Wanted to Know About Adequate Proof of Causation in Tort Law
- Book Review
- G Turton, Evidential Uncertainty in Causation in Negligence (Hart Publishing 2016). 245 + ix pp. ISBN 978-1-84946-704-9 (Hart Studies in Private Law vol 15). £55.00 (hardback).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Recognition and Protection of Personality Rights: Classification and Typology
- Supply Chain Liability for Workers’ Injuries – Lessons to be Learned from Products Liability?
- Case Commentary
- A Dangerous Method: Correlations and Proof of Causation in Vaccine Related Injuries
- Review Article
- All You Ever Wanted to Know About Adequate Proof of Causation in Tort Law
- Book Review
- G Turton, Evidential Uncertainty in Causation in Negligence (Hart Publishing 2016). 245 + ix pp. ISBN 978-1-84946-704-9 (Hart Studies in Private Law vol 15). £55.00 (hardback).
