The question seems simple enough: in which national courts should a person be entitled to bring a lawsuit if his reputation or privacy is harmed across borders? One might expect an equally simple answer. Yet, as this book demonstrates, the answer is anything but straightforward. In this area of law, several conflicting interests are at stake. Since torts against personality typically entail a conflict between the alleged victim’s right to reputation or privacy and the alleged tortfeasor’s freedom of expression, the jurisdictional analysis is confronted with the task of reconciling competing fundamental rights while accommodating divergent national conceptions regarding their proper balance. Furthermore, identifying the appropriate connecting factors between cross-border personality rights disputes and geographical territories for the purpose of allocating jurisdiction is particularly challenging, as personality rights protect intangible interests of the person and their infringement is most often committed via the Internet. Against this background, it should already be clear why the allocation of jurisdiction over personality rights disputes has long been a sensitive and debated issue in the EU system of private international law. As such, this book focuses on the relevant instruments of EU law that lay down provisions aimed at resolving conflicts of adjudicatory jurisdiction over personality rights disputes – namely, the Brussels I-bis Regulation and the General Data Protection Regulation. To place the EU approach in a broader comparative perspective, it also considers the solutions developed in the judicial practice of United States courts. Overall, this book seeks to systematically assess the current solutions in EU private international law and explore possible ways forward towards a balanced and coherent regulatory response to this unsettled issue.
