"The Right to Privacy"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Alderman's and Kennedy's book which is an introduction to the wide variety of privacy claims made by American citizens and the fate of those claims in the courts. It explains how the book is intended for a general readership rather than for legal scholars. It is designed as if in answer to a list of points about privacy that almost any group of Americans would produce if they were asked to name the areas of privacy in which they were most interested.

From the Paper:

"In the very brief introduction the authors state that they began the book with the assumption that traditional forms of privacy are being curtailed--"whether it be the disclosure of intimate details about a person's life or interference with private decisions" (xiv). Most people feel that this is happening but have little information on how this could transpire since they often believe that some legal protection is available. After they began reviewing cases and interviewing individuals the authors discovered that the situation was even worse than they had originally thought. The purpose of their book, therefore, is to "take apart privacy and analyze the competing legal principles and societal interests" that complicate the issues (xv)."

More papers on "The Right to Privacy":

• Essay # 90806 : "Constitutional Amendment: The Right to Privacy"
• Book Review # 15389 : "The Right To Privacy" by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy"
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