Constitutional Dilemmas: Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights in Europe and the USA Book

Introduction ix

Part I The Theory of Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights

1 Law, Morality, and Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights 3

1 The Dilemma 3

2 The Structure of FLRs' Norms: Rules v Principles 7

3 Weighing Principles in Competition: Harmony or Conflict? 12

4 Conflicts of FLRs: From Morality to Law 23

5 Conclusion 25

2 The Concept of Fundamental Legal Rights 27

1 FLRs and Analysis 27

2 A Preliminary Problem: Reductionism 27

3 The Structure and Point of Rights 29

4 The Scope (or Content) of FLRs 42

5 The External Dimension or the Function(s) of FLRs 45

6 FLRs: A Stipulative Definition 47

3 The Anatomy of Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights 49

1 Introduction 49

2 Lato Sensu and Spurious Conflicts of FLRs 49

3 The Core of Conflicts of FLRs 52

4 Theories of Rights, Normative Inconsistencies, and Incommensurability 55

5 Beyond Absolute or Prima Facie FLRs 60

6 A Typology of Conflicts of FLRs 64

4 A Framework to Deal with Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights 67

1 Why a Framework? 67

2 Conflicts and the Constitution 68

3 Interpretation and Conflicts of FLRs 74

4 Deference and Conflicts of FLRs 79

5 Balancing and Conflicts of FLRs 84

6 The Rule of Conflict as the Ultimate Rule of Law 90

Part II The Practice of Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights

Introduction 97

5 The Fundamental Legal Right to Privacy 99

1 Privacy: An Ambiguous Concept 99

2 The Structure of the FLR to Privacy 101

3 The Legal Protection of the FLR to Privacy 107

4 Conflicts and the FLR to Privacy 112

6 The Fundamental Legal Right to Informational Privacy v The Fundamental Legal Right to Free Press 114

1 Introduction114

2 Situating the Conflict 115

3 Solving the Conflict? 131

7 Mortal Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights-The Fundamental Legal Right to Life v The Fundamental Legal Right to Decisional Privacy 142

1 Introduction 142

2 Physician-assisted Suicide Around the World 145

3 The Anatomy of a FLRs Conflict 148

4 Moral and Legal Conflicts 156

5 Whose Tragedy Is It? 160

6 Present Solutions: How do Courts Solve the Conflict? 162

7 Accepting or Imposing Sacrifices 166

8 Conclusion 168

Bibliography 171

Index 179