American Privacy Law: Doctrine, Cases, and Legislation: Doctrine, Cases, and Legislation

Author: Torchin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: The American Privacy Law: Doctrine, Cases, and Legislation is a co-authored work by Professor Allen and Professor Torchin. This book represents the highest level of research on American privacy law and is an authoritative treatise on the subject. It is divided into seven chapters:
Chapter 1, Overview of Privacy Law. This chapter introduces the historical origins of American privacy thought and its social value, the legal origins of privacy rights, the consolidation of privacy rights in tort law and the U.S. Constitution, and the value of privacy. It provides readers with a general understanding of the origins, development, and theoretical foundations of American privacy law.
Chapter 2, Personal Information Privacy. This chapter addresses cutting-edge privacy issues such as whether drug testing, alcohol testing, and HIV testing infringe on information privacy, the relationship between lie detection and privacy rights, the privacy of HIV carriers and AIDS patients, and genetic privacy.
Chapter 3, Federal and State Laws on Privacy Protection for Conversations and Email. Chapters 3 and 4 primarily introduce privacy issues in the context of digitization and the internet, as well as the statutory legislation in the U.S. on this matter.
Chapter 4, Computers/Digital Technology, the Internet, and Privacy Rights.
Chapter 5, Common Law Privacy Protection. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the development of American common law in protecting privacy rights.
Chapter 6, Protection of Privacy Rights for Personality, Identity, and Reputation.
Chapter 7, Privacy, Autonomy, and Intimate Conduct. The content of this chapter may be the most complex and exploratory among the privacy issues covered in the book. The authors not only analyze these privacy issues from a legal perspective but also from ethical, philosophical, and scientific angles.
The authors of this book provide a comprehensive introduction and analysis of the origins, development, and latest achievements of American privacy law from the perspectives of legal theory, judicial precedents, and U.S. legislation. They also explore cutting-edge areas of privacy, such as genetic privacy, privacy issues related to the internet, privacy in HIV and stimulant testing, privacy of LGBTQ+ individuals, and privacy regarding abortion. It can be said that this book offers excellent material for researchers, legislators, and judges in China working on privacy law, and will contribute to the development of the rule of law in China.
It should be noted that this book is a compilation of the original content, not a full translation of the original work. The decision to compile rather than translate was based on two main reasons: First, the original content contains numerous cases, where the authors have included many similar cases and detailed all the facts, procedures, and opinions of each case. Translating all this content would be extremely time-consuming and result in a cumbersome work that does not align with the reading habits of Chinese readers. Second, the original work is over a thousand pages long, and some of its content consists of theoretical works by many philosophers, which is extremely difficult to understand. Omitting these parts does not affect the reflection of the essence of the original work.
Based on the above considerations, with the agreement of Professor Allen, the author, and Western Publishing Group, the copyright holder in the U.S., we chose to compile this book. The compilation follows the following principles: First, objectively and comprehensively reflect the spirit of the original work; Second, translate the essence of the original work; Third, adhere to the reading habits of Chinese readers.