Conveyancing / Tenancy / Land › Law › B15_JanMar2026_OUP_bloom_hart_GLB_HKU

Privacy as Property

Name: Privacy as Property
Brand: Hart Publishing
SKU: 9781509987382
Price: 1197.95 HKD
Availability: InStock
Author: Marcus Smith
ISBN: 9781509987382

By Marcus Smith

Hart Publishing February 2026

Specifications

ISBN-13: 9781509987382
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Publication: February 2026
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

This innovative work offers a new perspective on the established tort of misuse of private information, contending that English law has evolved a sophisticated mechanism for the protection of privacy and the protection of the economic value in private information.

Although information generally is not property, private information now appears to be treated by English law as a form of property, giving the owner of the information rights of exclusion, exploitation and transfer.

Balancing philosopical discussion of the fundamentals with a detailed analysis of the practical difficulties of "propertising" information, the books suggests that English law has evolved a powerful tool for the protection of privacy in this data-driven world.

i. Introduction

ii. The new cause of action of misuse of private information

iii. The nature of information

iv. Underpinnings and rationale

v. economic justification for a proprietary regime

vi. Private information

vii. Misuse: non-state actors

viii. Misuse: state actors

ix. Undertakings, mass data collection and the protection of privacy

x. Bringing the claim

xi. Exploitation of private information

xii. Privacy and information in the new world