References
- Ergec R. Introduction au droit public, t. II, Les droits et libertés. Bruxelles: Story-Scientia, 1995: 15.
- Meulders M.-T. Vie privée, vie familiale et droits de l’homme. Revue internationale de droit comparé, 1991: 770.
- Velu J., Ergec R. La convention européenne des droits de l’homme. Bruxelles: Bruylant, 1990: 536.
- Velu J., Ergec R. Op. cit.: 536.
- Ergec R. Op. cit.: 107.
- Rigaux F. La liberté de la vie privée. Revue internationale de droit comparé, 1991: 549.
- Velu J. Le droit au respect de la vie privée. Namur-Bruxelles: Presses universitaires de Namur-Larcier, 1974: 19.
- Rigaux F. Op. cit.: 559–560.
- Rigaux F. La vie privée. Une liberté parmi les autres ? Bruxelles: Larcier, 1992: 9.
- Meulders M.T. Op. cit.: 773.
- European Commission of Human Rights. Decision of 18 May 1976, req. n° 6825/74. D.R.; 5: 86.
- European Commission of Human Rights. Report of 12 July. 1977, req. n° 6959/75. D.R.,; 10: 100–101, §§ 55 et 57.
- Ergec R. Op. cit.: 106–107.
- Velu J., Ergec R. Op. cit.: 536–537.
- Ergec R. Op. cit.: 105.
- Velu J., Ergec R. Op. cit.: 535.
- The last-mentioned rights are the oldest expressions of the right to the respect of private live at the level of human rights (Rigaux F. La liberté de la vie privée. Op. cit.: 540). However, they give rise to specific problems, making a separate analysis justified (Velu J., Ergec R. Op. cit.: 535).The right to the respect of private life is not devoid of links with the right to the respect of family life, either, but this last right requires the existence of a family, i.e. a “set of interpersonal relationships between people close to each other, which give it the dimension of a “we” different from that of the “I” of the privacy” (Meulders M.-T. Op. cit.: 774).
- Rigaux F. La liberté de la vie privée. Op. cit.: 547–548.
- Kayser P. La protection de la vie privée par le droit. Protection du secret de la vie privée. Paris-Aix-en-Provence: Economica-Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 1995: 11–12, 17.
- Rigaux F. La liberté de la vie privée. Op. cit.: 547.
- Kayser P. Op. cit.: 11, 16.
- Meulders M.-T. Op. cit.: 770.
- Ricœur P. Préface du Code de déontologie médicale. Paris: Seuil, 1996: 18.
- The document mentioned here, officially called “Guide européen d’éthique médicale”, was adopted by the “conférence internationale des ordres et organismes d’attributions similaires”. No official English version available.
- Those penal provisions more generally punish all breaches of the professional secret.
- Morais Y. Secret médical. In: Hottois G., Missa J.-N. Nouvelle encyclopédie de bioéthique. Médecine, Environnement, Biotechnologie. Bruxelles: De Boeck Université, 2001: 725–726.
- This provision does not only apply to the medical secret. It concerns all types of professional secrets: “Everyone has the right to professional secret”.
- Inserted by article 3 of law nr 2002–303 of March 4th 2002 on patients’ rights and on the quality of the health care system (Journal Officiel, 511 March 2002).
- Azoux-Bacrie L. Vocabulaire de bioéthique. Paris: P.U.F., 2000: 102.
- Nys H. La médecine et le droit. Diegem: Kluwer, 1995: 113. [EML0] Belgian Act on the patient’s rights recently adopted by the Belgian House of Representatives.
- Moniteur belge, 30ft July 1999.
- Inserted by article 11 of above-mentioned law nr 2002–303 of March 4th 2002 on patients’ rights and on the quality of the health care system.
- Projet de loi relatif aux droits du patient. Doc. parl., Ch. représ., sess. ord. 2001–2002, n° 1642/001-1642/015. Doc. parl., Sén., sess. ord. 2001–2002, n° 2-1250/1-2-1250/6. Art. 9, § 2.
- It should also be noticed that, with some reserves, this right can be deduced from the general texts that aim at protecting private life within the context of the processing of confidential data.
- NysH. Op. cit.: 113.
- This convention, also called “convention for the protection of the Human Rights and dignity of the human being with regards to the application of biology and medecine” was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 19th November 1996 and opened for signature by the states on 4th April 1997.
- Inserted by article 11 of above-mentioned law nr 2002–303 of March 4th 2002 on patients’ rights and on the quality of the health care system. [EML0] The Act on the patient’s rights recently adopted by the Belgian House of Representatives.
- Durand G. Introduction générale à la bioéthique. Histoire, concepts et outils. Montréal-Paris: Fides-Cerf, 1999: 225.
- Meulders-Klein M.-T. Op. cit.: 771.
- Rigaux F. La liberté de la vie privée. Op. cit.: 540–541.
- Rigaux F. La vie privée. Une liberté parmi les autres ? Op. cit.: 15–16.
- More recently it has been reasserted with regards to the rapidly developing computerisation of confidential data processing.
- common law countries are countries that take to a greater or lesser extent from the English legal system, which is set apart from the so-called continental systems. In the latter, laws enacted by legislative bodies (statutes) are the main formal source of law. Court’s decisions are only an authority. In other words the only task of the judges is to apply statutes, which are supposed to have made provision for everything; they do not create law—even if, in practice, they often have to innovate when they interpret obscure or inadapted texts. As for Common law countries, they recognise the primacy of statutes (Statutory Law) but give the decisions of High Courts of justice (Case Law) the status of source of law. Therefore, these decisions have the status of precedents: they are binding, following specific rules, for the courts of justice that have adopted them and for the lower courts of justice.
- This is necessary when these provisions do not have a so-called “direct effect”: they require enforcement measures to be taken at a national level, among other because they do not reach a satisfactory level of precision. (See Verhoeven J. Droit international public. Bruxelles: Larcier, 2000: 412–415 et 451).
- The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, for instance, goes deeper, at the level of the European continent, into the protection of the human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—and in the subsequent International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights —: the provisions it contains are more precise; it institutes an effective international control. (Kayser P. Op. cit.: 2021; Wachsmann P. Les droits de l’homme, 2e éd. Paris: Dalloz, 1995: 26–27).
- This is in particular the case of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: it states rights taken from the European common tradition expressed, for instance, in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to which the Union is not a party. (See Bribosia E., De Schutter O. La Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne. Journal des tribunaux, 2001: 281).
- After adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is not legally binding, the UN got down to the drawing up of an International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and an International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both treaties being legally binding for the States that ratified them.
- Meulders-Klein M.-T. La production des normes en matière bioéthique. In: Neirinck C. De la bioéthique au bio-droit. Paris: L.G.D.J., 1994: 24.
- This is for instance the case of some WMA declarations, of the Declaration of Amsterdam, of the Code of Medical Ethics, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Lenoir N., Mathieu B. Les normes internationales de la bioéthique. Paris: P.U.F., 1998: 42.
- Meulders M.-T. La production des normes en matière bioéthique. Op. cit.: 24.