El secreto comercial made in Paraguay: los alcances y límites en el derecho laboral y en el derecho penal

Abstract

In Paraguayan Law there is not a single norm which regulates the confidential information that should be kept “in secret”. Instead, there are several regulations on the “confidential information” that should be kept “in secret”. Moreover, these different regulations come from different areas of the legal arena, as the Civil Law, Labor Law, Criminal Law and Public Law. Furthermore, in Paraguayan Law there are known several “levels” of secrecy, namely, “professional secrecy”, “industrial secrecy”, “business secret”, “trade secrets”, “classified matters”, etc. Even though these names suggest a unique o at least a similar protection. But in fact, these “levels” of secrecy differ in its legal protection, namely in its scope as in its quality.In this work the “legal secrecy obligation” will be analyzed from both the Labor Law and Criminal Law points of view, taking in consideration the ‘General Principles of Law’ and the rules of other legal areas like Civil Law or Public Law, aiming the proper reach of the labor and criminal regulations on the “legal secrecy obligation (considering the fact that “trade secrets” sometimes are not the same as “professional secrecy” and so on).