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Constitutional Patriotism and the Right to Privacy: New Article by Professor Bignami

By Bartolus

Professor Francesca Bignami, now of Gearge Washington University Law School, has published another terrific article on privacy in Europe.

The title of the article is "The Case for Tolerant Constitutional Patriotism: The Right to Privacy Before the European Courts" and it will be published in the Cornell International Law Journal. You can download it here.

This is what the abstract states:

"The theory of constitutional patriotism has been advanced as a solution to the European Union's legitimacy woes. Europeans, according to this theory, should recognize themselves as members of a single human community and thus acknowledge the legitimacy of Europe-wide governance based on their shared belief in a common set of liberal democratic values. Yet in its search for unity, constitutional patriotism, like nationalism and other founding myths, carries the potential for the exclusion of others. This article explores the illiberal tendencies of one element of the liberal canon-the right to privacy-in the case law of Europe's constitutional courts. It argues that, in confronting the tension between privacy and freedom of expression, the European Court of Justice has been more successful than the European Court of Human Rights at accommodating diverse national orderings and thus resisting the illiberal dangers of constitutional patriotism."

It is essential reading.

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on December 04, 2008 (boomark / email).