Public Figures To Privacy Protection And Limitations And Types Of Research

Since the last century, with the appearance of the right of privacy, people increasingly realized the importance of the right of privacy in the field of protecting personal information, the private business and the personal domain from the outside invasion. Whereas, no right could expand itself unlimitedly. It has reached the mutual recognition in the law circle that the right of privacy, esp. the public figure's right of privacy, shall be restricted to some extent, when it conflicts with the public interest. However, how can we reasonably divide the personal domain and the public domain to define the extent of protecting the public figure's right of privacy, and, what on earth is the restriction is, and it is towards which type of the public figure, in which aspect, and to which extent?The author deems that whether the issue is about the protection or the restriction of the public figure's right of privacy, its essence is to coordinate and balance the conflicts between the right of privacy and the rights, such as the right to know, the supervision by public opinion, and etc. Therefore, we must coordinate those benefits by check and balance, namely to the public figure's right of privacy, both the protection and the restriction shall be limited, in order to keep the legal balance without bias or favor. The author originally puts forward the classification system of the public figure through comparative analysis, establishes public interest principle which defines the boundary of the public figure's right of privacy, and demonstrates the protection and the restriction of the public figure's right of privacy from both personal dignity and public interest aspects. Based on this, the author further discusses the typological restriction to the public figure's right of privacy according to public figure's classification. Finally, by reconsidering the current legislation and judicial practice in China, the author proposes the preliminary conception of the establishment of the public figure's right of privacy system through analyzing real cases.This article is composed of the foreword, the text including four chapters, and the conclusion:The first chapter mainly defines the conception, classification, and the legal nature of the privacy, the right of privacy, and the public figure's right of privacy, and etc. Then by integrating the three domestic and foreign classifications of the public figure, the author originally puts forward the classification system of the public figure to clean up the connotation and the extension of the conception of the public figure's right of privacy.The second chapter elaborates the protection and the restriction of the public figure's right of privacy. The issue on the protection and the restriction of the public figure's right of privacy is essentially to protect the part within the boundary and to limit the part outside the boundary, when we reasonably define the boundary of the right. Firstly the author elaborates the public interest principle, which is the basis of dividing personal or public affairs. Then the author raises the issue on the beneficial balance between the protection and the restriction of the public figure's right of privacy to seek a reasonable balance between public interest and personal dignity of the public figure.The third chapter especially studies the typological restriction of the public figure's right of privacy. From the comparison between political public figure and social public figure, public figure for all purposes and limited public figure, voluntary public figure and non-voluntary public figure, the author analyzes the respective difference existed in the protection and the restriction of the right of privacy and its origin, and then divides the public figure into four levels, which include political public figure, social public figure for all purposes, voluntary limited social public figure and non-voluntary limited social public figure, then concludes on the typological restriction principle, which provides beneficial references to ascertain the scope of the public figure's right of privacy in a certain case.The fourth chapter proposes the preliminary conception of the establishment of the public figure's right of privacy system based on the current situation in China, through the reconsideration on the legislation and the judicial practice.