Category Archives: Defamation and Privacy
James Grimmelmann, ‘The Defamation Machine’
ABSTRACT Can ChatGPT commit libel? Defamation of a public figure requires a false statement of fact made with knowledge or reckless disregard of its falsity. But do these doctrines of meaning and knowledge, created with humans in mind, even make sense when the ‘defendant’ is a computer system? I argue that answering these legal questions […]
Hannah van Kolfschooten, ‘A health-conformant reading of the GDPR’s right not to be subject to automated decision-making’
ABSTRACT As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in healthcare is expanding, patients in the European Union (EU) are increasingly subjected to automated medical decision-making. This development poses challenges to the protection of patients’ rights. A specific patients’ right not to be subject to automated medical decision-making is not considered part of the traditional […]
Francesca Palmiotto, ‘The AI Act Roller Coaster: How Fundamental Rights Protection Evolved in the EU Legislative Process’
ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents one of the biggest challenges to fundamental rights protection, a concern the European Union (EU) is actively addressing through regulatory initiatives like the AI Act and the AI Liability Directive. Within EU institutions, however, visions on the nature of such a challenge and the appropriate framework it should be dealt […]
‘Better late than never – the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 is finally here’
INTRODUCTION The origins of the aphorism ‘better late than never’ may lie in Livy’s History of Rome (c 27-29 BCE). Its first recorded use in English seems to be in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (c 1387-1400); in The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, the Yeoman (pictured right, from the Ellesmere Chaucer) says … (more) [Eoin O’Dell, Cearta, 2 […]
Victor Habib Lantyer, ‘The Expansion of the Theory of the Electronic Body’
ABSTRACT The Theory of the Electronic Body, created by the Italian jurist Stefano Rodotà, consists of the set of information about us that exists on the internet, forming an authentic profile of each person’s personality. This electronic body requires a series of legal protections, especially with the advent of big data, which refers to the […]
G Edward White, ‘Reconsidering the Legacy of New York Times v Sullivan’
ABSTRACT This Article argues that the ‘actual malice’ standard for recovery in defamation cases should be abandoned outside cases in which the plaintiff is a ‘public official’, currently defined as an employee of the government whose office invites public scrutiny and comment. The actual malice standard prevents many categories of plaintiffs from recovering substantial amounts […]
‘Defamation cases should routinely be commenced in the Circuit Court and not the High Court, and the forthcoming Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 should be amended accordingly’
It is widely reported this morning that the Government has approved the publication of the long-awaited, much-delayed, and eagerly-anticipated Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 … It will deal with issues such as the abolition of juries, the control of strategic litigation against publish participation (SLAPPs), live broadcasts, transient retail defamation, support for alternative resolution of defamation […]
‘Journalism vs data privacy: The GDPR dilemma in reporting crimes’
When reporting crimes, news portals (hereinafter often referred to as controllers who determine the means and purposes of processing personal data) frequently publish personal data (any information that directly or indirectly identifies an individual, as defined in Article 4(1), Regulation 2016/679). For instance, during the Madeleine McCann case, news agencies published unproven allegations against the […]
Nathalie Smuha, ‘The Paramountcy of Data Protection Law in the Age of AI (Acts)’
ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence’s data-driven nature renders it undeniably impactful on the rights to privacy and data protection. It is therefore no surprise that Europe’s upcoming AI Act is entwined with regulation that seeks to protect those rights, amongst other EU values. In this article, I dive deeper into the relationship between the AI Act and […]
Roberts and Richardson, ‘Privacy, Punishment and Private Law’
ABSTRACT While private law has developed various causes of action for breach of privacy, the criminal law has seldom used the concept of privacy in defining its proscriptions. There is no recognised category of ‘privacy crimes’. But new technologies are posing ever more serious threats to our privacy. On the one hand, this has led […]