The Right to Privacy: an Emerging Right in Chinese Law
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/18.3.208 |
| Pages | 208-214 |
| Date | 01 January 1997 |
| Year | 1997 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
Statute Law Review, Volume
18,
Number
3,
pp. 208-214,1997
The Right to Privacy: An Emerging
Right in Chinese Law
GUOBIN ZHU*
I. Introduction
If the Warren-Brandeis article1 is taken as a landmark in the evolution of the
right of privacy, it might be argued, with some justification, that the right
emerged almost a century later in China than in the West. The first considera-
tion in China of the protection of privacy was a judicial interpretation by the
Supreme People's Court in 1988.2 A scholar observed that between 1985 and
1987,
there was not a single article on the right of privacy published in the
People's Republic.* This started to change following two series of lawsuits, in
1988 and 1992, in which journalists were the principal actors.
This article examines (i) the academic Chinese analysis of the concept of, and
the right to, privacy, and (ii) the scope of the legislative protection of the priv-
acy in China.
II.
The Concept of Privacy
The current literature on these topics in China are meagre. This reflects that
the fact that privacy remains a strange concept for many in China, and the
right to privacy is not an integral part of rights of the person. People have had
no clear idea how to distinguish the difference between a shameful secret
(yinsi)
and privacy
(yinsi).
These two words were very often used alternately for their
pronunciation is almost the same except for a slight difference of the tones.
Even in a widely used Chinese dictionary, 'shameful secref is defined as a
*
LL
D (Aix-Marseflks, Fiance); Assistant Professor of Law at the faculty of Law of City University
of Hong Kong; Managing Editor of the
Journal
of
Chinese
and
Comparative
Law.
1 Warren, &D., and Brandeis, L.D. (1890) The right to privacy" Harvard Law Review, 4: 193-220,
reprinted in Wacks, R. (ed.),
Privacy
(Aldershot Dartmouth, 1993) vol. 0, pp. 3-30.
1
This
judicial interpretation, still in effect, is under the title of
Opinion
on
Several Questions concerning
the Implementation of the General Principles of Civil Law of the People's Republic of China.
1 Cf. Legal Daily (Fazhi RIbao), 27 May 1993. Cited from Wei Yongzheng:
Journalists
at the Bar
(Shanghai Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1994), p. 104.
208
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
