SPECIAL COLLECTION OF THE CASE LAW ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
I. Methodological clarifications
The rights to freedom of expression and privacy are recognized in a wide range of universal and
regional international treaties. Articles 12 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights respectively recognize the rights to privacy and freedom of expression, as do Articles 17 and 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. At the regional level, the European Convention
on Human Rights (“ECHR”) recognizes both rights in Articles 8 (privacy) and 10 (freedom of expression), whereas the American Convention on Human Rights does the same in Articles 11 and 13.
In the same vein, both rights are recognized at a national level by numerous constitutions in regions
across the world. According to the Constitute Project, 192 countries include the right to freedom of
expression in their constitutions, while 183 do the same for the right to privacy.
As part of the Special Collection of the Case Law of Freedom of Expression, the purpose of
this paper is to present, in a systematic manner, the summaries of some of the landmark decisions
from different regional and national jurisdictions that are found in the Columbia Global Freedom
of Expression database. The paper serves as an illustrative summary of emblematic decisions that
may be of interest to judges, lawyers, and activists. It is
our aim —through the systematization of the case analyThe purpose of this paper
sis included in our database— to present the diverse case
is to present, in a systematic
law of different legal systems about privacy and freedom
of expression, their mutually reinforcing relationship, and
manner, the summaries
the tensions that have arisen when these rights collide.
of some of the landmark
decisions from different
That said, our paper is not meant to be a comprehensive or exhaustive list, nor a comparative study: it is meant
regional and national
to be a short reference document that serves as a brief
jurisdictions that are found
introduction to what is systematized in our database and
in the Columbia Global
to how different courts have resolved highly contentious
matters at the present time. The comparative global study
Freedom of Expression
of case law about the tension between the right to freedom
database.
of expression and the right to privacy could fill entire volumes since this is an extraordinarily prolific field in the jurisprudence of both national and regional
courts. Furthermore, the way these cases have been resolved by different courts is closely related to
the varying legal cultures of each jurisdiction and their understanding of the concept of constitutional
democracy. A comprehensive comparative study would have to consider these differences.
It is important to note that the paper includes decisions from both regional human rights courts
and national high courts. In some cases, however, due to the novelty or the importance of some rulings, we included decisions from first instance, appellate, and specialized courts from a wide number
of jurisdictions. It is also true that, in some cases, tribunals in different jurisdictions have arrived at
different alternative solutions. For this document, we have chosen the decisions we consider to be
of the utmost interest for the following reasons: they conform more clearly to global standards and
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