In its case law, the European Court of Human Rights has acknowledged that national courts are bound to give effect to Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) which sets out the right to private and family life, when they rule on controversies between private individuals. Article 8 of the ECHR has thus been accorded mittelbare Drittwirkung or indirect 'third-party' effect in private law relationships.

The German law of privacy, centring on the "allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht", has quite a long history, and the influence of the European Court of Human Rights' interpretation of the ECHR has led to a strengthening of privacy protection in the German law. This book considers how English courts could possibly use and adapt structures adopted by the German legal order in response to rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, to strengthen the protection of privacy in the private sphere.

Hans-Joachim Cremer is Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at the University of Mannheim since 2000. He earned his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. His dissertation on legal protection against expulsion and deportation won the University's Ruprecht Karl's Award in 1995. In 1999 he completed his Habilitation at Heidelberg. His post-doctoral thesis investigates the methodology of constitutional interpretation.

1. Aspects of Comparison and the European Convention on Human Rights in the Context of German Law 2. The European Court of Human Rights' Caroline von Hannover Judgment and its Reverberations 3. Drittwirkung under the ECHR: Human Rights Obligation of State Authorities and their Influence on Judicial Decisions in Private Law Disputes 4. Drittwirkung of Constitutionally Guaranteed Basic Rights in the German Legal Order 5. Conclusions