This Master’s thesis discusses the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights concerning the right to respect the privacy of legal persons. The European Union regulates the right to privacy in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Council of Europe regulates the right to privacy in Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The development and current provisions for the protection of the right to privacy of legal persons are presented through selected influential judgements of the CJEU and ECtHR.
The extent of the protection of the right to privacy of legal persons, as is provided by the CJEU and ECtHR has greatly evolved over the years. Although initially such protection was rejected, it has developed through the case-law to now include protection of the privacy of home, privacy of correspondence and in the last years also includes protection of privacy of data. The latter category raised great public resistance, which will undoubtedly see some progress and rigorous monitoring by the public in the upcoming years.
The influence of the grounds for establishing a particular organization are also reflected in the protection of the right to privacy. The protection of this right within the European Union context is aimed at the field that largely affects economic activities of entities. In doing so, the most significant part of the case-law is related to the investigations of legal entities initiated by the European Commission as part of competition law procedures. The protection of this right within the Council of Europe has so far been predominantly focused on the appropriate distinction between the rights belonging to natural and legal persons. The case-law of the ECtHR is in its essence often more creative as the case-law of the CJEU, and had a significant impact on the development of the latter's case-law. I expect a similar development and interplay also in the future, especially due to the orientation of the ECtHR to treat the ECHR as a living instrument, which must be interpreted appropriately to the state of society.
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