Right to Privacy and Freedom of Information. Case-Law Developments in 2013-2014. The Delayed and Unusual Reception of the Carolina Case in Spain

Abstract

This essay tries to analyze critically the last case law of the Spanish Constitutional Court about the conflict between freedom of speech and the right to private life in its different aspects: reputation, privacy and right to image. The criticism is based in the lack of adequacy between the case law established by the ECtHR and the interpretation of that case law made by the Constitutional Court. The Essay describes the European Case Law and, subsequently, it studies the way the Constitutional Court has applied it in four important cases in 2013 and 2014. Two basic conclusions are reached. First, a correct execution of the Strasbourg jurisprudence will require from the Spanish Constitutional Court a reception of the criteria settle down in the Axel Springer Judgment. Second, it is of ultimate importance the acceptance of a broader meaning of the right to intimacy included in article 18 of the Spanish Constitution to reach a consistent interpretation of this right with the right to private life as it is enshrined in article 8 of the Convention.