A Study On The Application Of Law On Foreign-related Defamation Cases

Personality rights are the basic rights of citizens,while reputation right is an important part of personality rights.And the right to reputation is an indispensable important right for people to participate in society.With the rapid development of media and network and the full transnational flow of production factors,the infringement of reputation rights has gradually moved from one country to another and changed into transnational and cross-regional disputes,and thus putting forward higher requirements for the protection of citizens' reputation rights.Meanwhile,with the continuous development of the era of the internet from the era of paper media,the degree of privacy of personal information has begun to decline,the scope of communication has become wider,and the possibility of information dissemination has caused reputational damage to information stakeholders.And with the spread of information in multiple countries and regions around the world,whether it is the involvement of foreign factors or the consideration of the role of internet factors in reputation infringement cases,higher legislative and judicial practice requirements is raised by countries around the world in order to properly handle such foreign-related reputation infringement cases.In China,the Law of the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relations of the People's Republic of China,which was enacted in 2011,has made a clear selection of method for the applicable law of foreign-related personality rights infringement,including the right to reputation.In adaptation to the background of the Internet era,its choice is consistent with the method applicable to the traditional media.This kind of choice guarantees the clarity and consistency of the legal practice.For the parties to the case,this choice has improved the predictability of the applicable law,which is of advanced and practical significance.However,a clear selection means it is single and rigid,which cannot protect the party's interests in long term.Comparatively speaking,UK laws,US laws and EU laws show more diversity and flexibility,especially for foreign-related infringement of reputation.And their changes in light of the era of internet,also show different ideas and attitudes towards infringement through internet.This dissertation is intended to analyze Article 15,44 and 46 of the Law of the Application of Law and its advantages and drawbacks,through a comparison between laws of PRC and laws of UK,US and EU,then come up with the suggestions accordingly.In the first chapter,I will introduce details of the legislation and legal practice of PRC in terms of choice-of-law for foreign-related infringements of reputation.I will start from the definition and unique characteristics of infringement of reputation rights.Based on such,I will then turn to the analysis of Article 15,44 and 46.And finally,I will discuss the legal practice in terms of these three articles by Chinese court.In the second chapter,I will turn to the assessments of choice-of-law for traditional types of reputation infringement.I selected UK,US and EU on purpose for their representativeness.In summary,I will then find that choice-of-law in all three regions indicating the balance between the protection of personal reputation rights and the protection of free speech,as well as the balance between the predictability of laws and the justice of individual cases.In the third chapter,I will then involve the idea of “internet”,which brings about huge challenges and changes to the choice-of-law in terms of reputation infringement worldwide.In the first place,I will try to clarify the new features and requirements of internet related reputation infringements.Based on such new features and requirements,I will then discuss how UK,US and EU laws deal with these new requirements.In the last chapter,I will try to conclude the problems of PRC choice-of-law for foreign-related reputation infringements.I will propose that the current method in the Law of the Application of Law of PRC lacks flexibility and changes in response to the era of internet.And eventually,I will raise my own suggestions.