Some Comparative Reflections on the Right of Privacy of Public Figures in Public Places

Abstract

Abstract English judges are becoming more comparatively minded than they might be willing to admit; and current developments suggest that this trend is bound to increase, not decrease, with the passage of time. For instance, the gradual divergence of common law jurisdictions on such important matters as liability for pure economic loss1 will increase the pressure on our judiciary to reconsider their views on this perennial problem and, more importantly, towards the principle of incrementalism which they imported from Australia with such enthusiasm. 2 A change of attitude here will put tort law into forward gear, something which the judges of the 1980s have feared but which seemed to have left their predecessors in the 1970s relatively undaunted. Commonwealth Jaw will not be the only source of inspiration.