INTRODUCTION

Over the past century, in both the Civil Law and the Common Law, the concept of “personality rights” has evolved to encompass that bundle of rights which protects the integrity and inviolability of the individual. Von Bar, for example, writing on European tort law, lists as personality rights the right to protection of life, and to be protected against injury to the body or health, and deprivation of liberty, as well as “the right to one's name, the right to one's image, and the right to honour and self-esteem”, and the right to protection against unlawful disclosure of personal information and interference with family life. A succinct working definition is found in the non-exhaustive listing in article 3 of the Quebec Civil Code:

In summary, there are rights which “protect the attributes of the human person”, and thus concentrate upon “the être – the being – in contrast with the avoir – the having”. But while the category is recognised in both Scotland and Louisiana, and an abundant literature has formed on both sides of the Atlantic, there are significant variations – even within the Civil or Common Law groupings – with regard to the private law remedies by which personality rights may be vindicated.