Confidence crisis: why invasion of privacy should be independently recognised in English Law

This 2006 article in the Intellectual Property Quarterly presents seven arguments as to why English law should recognize, or recognise, a tort of 'Invasion of Privacy'. These are:

1. Breach of confidence is jurisprudentially inappropriate to protect privacy. 2. Privacy is quasi-constitutional, whereas confidence is normal common law. 3. Applying confidence to protect privacy distorts the confidence action. 4. Confidence is best applied to commercial information, and privacy is best suited to personal information. 5. Confidence may be inadequate in protecting privacy at common law. 6. Confidence is inadequate to protect privacy under ECHR and HRA. 7. For socio-educational reasons privacy should be independently protected.

This article has been quoted extensively, for example in Gurry on Confidence (OUP 2012); Intellectual Property and Human Rights (Kluwer 2008); Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2009); Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal (2007); it has also been required reading in law schools.