Privacy and the Media
The phone hacking scandal that has engulfed the Murdoch Empire in Britain has added a new dimension to the debate about the right to privacy. We see on the news images of celebrities emerging with their lawyers from the Royal Courts of Justice in London following the reading of an apology in open Court by a Murdoch lawyer and after being paid some compensation for their legal claim. All great theatre. But what legal claim have they just settled? And who created the legal rights that they pursued to the doors of the Court? The answer to the second question is judges, dare I say it, activist judges, doing what judges have done in our thousand year legal tradition of judge made law.