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While no brief book can hope to provide a comprehensive account of the manifold features of a concept as complex and controversial as privacy, this one introduces readers to the main features of what has become one of the most important rights or interests in contemporary society. In Britain the Leveson Inquiry Report of 2012 is the most comprehensive investigation into the ethics and practice of the media, with a significant section devoted to privacy and media intrusion. Its recommendations relating to media self-regulation continue to engender heated debate in Britain. The extraordinary revelations by the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, of the extensive surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States (US) continue to generate an enormous international debate about the legitimate balance between security and privacy. And the courts—particularly in England and Strasbourg—have reshaped the protection of privacy afforded to individuals under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. New questions are routinely spawned about privacy on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. And, of course, novel forms of electronic and technological surveillance devices pose almost daily challenges to privacy both online and in the ‘real’ world. The book attempts to describe the essential features of both the invasion and the protection of privacy in our digital world. ...Less

Recently, interest in international law has increased greatly, largely because of its central place in discussions such as the Iraq War, the World Trade Organization, the Kyoto Convention, the situations in Palestine and Darfur, and the plights of refugees and illegal immigrants around the world. International Law: A Very Short Introduction explains what international law is, its role in international society, and how it operates. It examines what international law can and cannot do and what it is and isn’t doing to make the world a better place. It uses terrorism, environmental change, poverty, and international violence to demonstrate international law theories and practice, and how the principles can be used for international cooperation. ...Less

Medical law is concerned with our bodies, and what happens to them during and after our lives. The core issues of medical law — organ transplantation, abortion, withdrawal of treatment, euthanasia, confidentiality, research on humans — affect us all. Medical Law: A Very Short Introduction explores different examples of these issues to illustrate the key problems and principles of medical law. When things go wrong with our bodies, we want to know what our rights are, and what governs the conduct of the clinicians into whose hands we put our lives and limbs. Dealing with matters of life and death, it can therefore have a fundamental impact on medical practice. ...Less