Details
- Provides comprehensive coverage of both liability for disclosure and defences
- Draws upon the author's research across a wide range of jurisdictions and professions.
- Brings together insights on many areas of law, including data protection, breach of confidence, the law of evidence, human rights, tort and contract, and takes into account relevant soft law and professional ethical guidance.
- In-depth coverage of how the legal issues arise, and are dealt with, in practice, both in the UK and in other jurisdictions.
- Numerous examples are cited from a wide variety of professional contexts ranging from the medical, legal, and financial to the social services and education.
New to this Edition:
- Expanded to cover all forms of confidential information handled by professionals.
- Covers new and recent case law in England and Wales, as well as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland.
This book examines the disclosure and withholding of all forms of confidential information handled by professionals. Fully revised and updated, the new edition examines the numerous recent developments in the law, particularly following revelations by the media of the interception of professional confidences by phone hacking and other means. Its primary focus is on the law of England and Wales, but it includes insights from the secondary literature and case law of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland. This allows it to predict how English courts may fill gaps in the law, and makes it a useful resource for practitioners in other common law jurisdictions.
The book begins with a discussion of the basic principles of confidentiality, including types of confidential information, confidentiality obligations, disclosures, and confidentiality obligation.
- Part I examines the legal instruments for the enforcement of confidentiality, including contractual obligations, tort of misuse of private information, equitable wrongs, actions against third parties, civil remedies and criminal offences, and remedies beyond the courts.
- Part II discusses justified disclosure, including those relating to public interest, official investigations, administration of justice, consent and waiver, and lapsed confidentiality.
- Part III analyses the grounds for justified non-disclosure, including legal professional privilege, public interest immunity, contractual or equitable obligations, data protection and freedom of information, privacy protection, and non-disclosure to client. Finally,
- Part IV discusses limiting the extent of a lawful disclosure, dealing with circulation restrictions, public reporting, anonymity, court attendance restrictions, and collateral use.
This is an essential reference for those advising either the professional or the individual client on issues relating to the disclosure of confidential personal information.
Part I
1: Introduction
Part II
2: Misuse of Private Information
3: Contractual Confidence Claims
4: Breach of Confidence and Fiduciary Duty
5: Miscellaneous Causes of Action: Tort and Copyright
6: Actions Against Third Parties and Strangers
7: Judicial Remedies
8: Non-Judicial Remedies
Part III
9: Disclosure Justified in the Public Interest
10: Disclosure of Confidential Information Compelled by Statute
11: Compelled Disclosure to Assist an Official Investigation
12: Disclosure Justified in the Administration of Justice
Part IV
13: Consent
14: Lapsed Confidentiality
Part V
15: Legal Professional Privilege
16: Data Protection and Freedom of Information
17: Open Justice, Privacy and Limiting the Use of Documents Disclosed in Litigation
Rosemary Pattenden is Emeritus Professor of the School of Law at the University of East Anglia.
Duncan Sheehan is Professor of Business Law at the University of Leeds.
Contributors:
- Orla Lynskey, Assistant Professor in Law, London School of Economics
- Richard Stone, Emeritus Professor of Law and Human Rights, University of Lincoln
It makes for a comprehensive survey of confidentiality in all areas of professional engagement...The use of such a book is obvious and it achieves its aim admirably...The language of the book is crisp and concise. The introduction section on the justification and limits of use of personal confidential information are carefully considered and highly rewarding...The book as a whole is well researched and footnoted, and a very wide range of subject matter is systematically presented and cross-referenced...Helpfully for such a fast developing area of law, the book is accompanied by a web update from the author's University website. Overall, it is a highly useful book for all manner of professionals and a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any lawyer advising or representing them. - Jeremy Hyam (1 Crown Office Row), New Law Journal
... an excellent legal resource that succinctly and comprehensively explains the English law on confidentiality and information privacy. For lawyers with an interest in biotechnology R & D, it is as timely as it is learned. - Bio-Science Law Review
Rosemary Pattenden has finally carried out the huge task of writing, researching and publishing a legal analysis with sufficient scope to enable readers to address the special issues raised by biotech research and commercialisation. - Bio-Science Law Review
Given the striking diversity of law and legal development, one of the strongest selling points of Pattenden's book is that she has established a publicly accessible website through which updates are published. - Bio-Science Law Review
If this book doesn't tell sometimes perplexed practitioners all we need to know about this fundamental and difficult topic, it certainly goes a long way towards doing so. - Law Society Journal
