Interrogating International Human Rights Law on the Rights of Free Speech and Privacy in the Digital Age: Reconceptualizations, Reconfigurations, (Un)reasonable Limits.
Loading...
Authors
Wells, Herbert
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
International Human Rights; Privacy; Free Speech; Internet , International Human Rights; Privacy; Free Speech; Internet
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation offers a legal, doctrinal analysis of how deficient some critical aspects of the interpretation of the fundamental human rights of free speech and privacy in international law are, in the face of increasingly widescale infringement of these rights by both governments and corporations, in our use of the internet in this digital age. While my concern is with free speech and privacy across the digital space as a whole, in this study, I utilize the issues of surveillance and big data as the backdrop. As such, surveillance and big data are used to problematize and highlight my wider systemic concerns. With that in mind, the dissertation is meant to interrogate and discuss international free speech and privacy rights jurisprudence, against the framework of the theoretical underpinnings of these rights in the literature, in order to unpackage the gaps, problems, failings, threats or other issues, when that jurisprudence is applied to our use of the internet, or is considered in light of the overall nature of the internet. The basic question that the study therefore asks, is this – In the framework of the extreme digital age within which we now operate, how does international human rights law adjust to safeguard the fundamental rights to privacy and free speech?
Having identified a series of gaps, shortcomings and unreasonable limits in the jurisprudence, the study advances and argues for a reconceptualization and reconfiguration that puts certain normative considerations from the theoretical constructs at the forefront of the adjudication of free speech and privacy rights, in the context of the digital age in which we live. I argue that autonomy and democracy, founded on the premise of human dignity, are the key underpinnings of any such adjudication of these rights, in so far as protecting us from the emerging challenges of the digital space is concerned. The study also accepts its aspirational dimensions, bearing in mind of course, that states are politically sovereign and are not subject to any binding, universal law or institution that has coercive powers of enforcement on matters of international human rights.
Description
Citation
Publisher
License
Queen's University's Thesis/Dissertation Non-Exclusive License for Deposit to QSpace and Library and Archives Canada
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.