Scopes of the Private Life Concept According to Georgian Legislation and Judicial Practice

Abstract

Identification of the private life concept scopes within the civil law is of significance from both, theoretical and practical point of view. Private life is subject of research of various disciplines. Regarding the goals of this work, it is of interest to identify the degree of reflecting of the social requirements related to private life in the norms of private law and what aspects of private life are protected in legal provisions. Significance of this issue is particularly conditioned by correlation between private and personal life. To clarify the above it would be reasonable to identify the substance of public life, as well as the limits of public and private spheres. Georgian legislation does not distinguish private and personal life; neither provides it the definitions of these concepts. Georgian Civil Code (hereinafter referred to as CCG) provides the provisions on protection of human dignity, business reputation, personal life secrecy, images and in 2008 the provision on personal data was added, as these comprise one of the parts of private life. Goal of the research is identification of the spheres (aspects) of private life protected by the legislation. In addition, the scopes of private life protected by the legislation should be identified, as conditioned by social, cultural, technical and other conditions in the society. Aspects of private life spheres should be classified by certain signs. This work is the attempt to study, together with Georgian legislation and judicial practice, as well as overview European judicial practice, to identify the ways for elimination of gaps. Research showed that there is correlation between social and legal bases of private life, similar to the private and public spheres, In addition, in many cases the private and public spheres are so close that sometimes there is no limit between them at all. It should be noted that public life, with its substance, in some context, may be equal to the public life, though public sphere is the sphere related to implementation of the governmental and non-governmental (public) function. Personal life, on its side, is the part of private sphere, which is closely related to a person directly and deals with body and moral integrity, ensures person's autonomy, develops individuality, what can be created by birth, as well as by the law. This, private and personal spheres are concepts Mostly, elements of private (personal) sphere are not legally protected; they are regulated by the moral norms. With respect of legal technique of protection, the decisive role is added to general personal right. Researches showed that Georgian legislation includes some elements of general personal right and recognition of general personal right is the way to protection of the private (personal) life and it has practical sense as well correlated as general and specific, as there are type and form correlation between them. Consequently, if personal rights are not protected in all aspects, general personal right should be recognized.