Wolfgang SteinerDie Grundlagen der verfassungsrechtlichen Rechtfertigung eines Eingriffs in das allgemeine Persönlichkeitsrecht

About this book deutschenglish

This book deals with the limitation stage of rights analysis under German constitutional law. In particular, it analyses the German “personality” right, usually understood in Anglo-American terms as the right to privacy. This topic is of great practical importance in the field of governmental surveillance, because the legislature has created a variety of laws since the census judgment (BVerfGE 65, 1) that balance the protection of personality rights on the one hand and the state’s information interests on the other hand. This issue is also gaining relevance because of the increasing advances in technology. It is now becoming easier for government agencies to obtain private information about citizens and to collate all relevant information into one, complete picture. But this question is also important for the other aspects of the personality right, as they often cover fundamental life decisions, such as the right to know one’s parentage, the right to choose one’s name or the right to free determination of one’s reproduction.