Privacy and the Criminal Law

Privacy is a central value in liberal political theory – a value that is now enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights: but what does privacy involve, and why should it be so important?

The papers in this volume, written by lawyers, philosophers and political theorists, focus on the role of privacy in the criminal law. What kind of rights to privacy should we have—and how far should such rights be protected by, or constrain the content of, the criminal law? What differences should a proper respect for privacy make to the criminal process? Can a system of criminal punishment respect the privacy rights of those who are punished?

These papers, which resulted from a workshop on Privacy and the Criminal Law held at the Catholic University of Leuven, show how fruitfully such an interdisciplinary approach can illuminate the meaning, the importance, and the implications of privacy for a liberal system of criminal law.