Privacy, justice and equality: The history of privacy legislation and its significance for civil society

The paper examines the relation between the realms of privacy and civil society by analyzing the recent history of privacy legislation in general and the developments in Switzerland since the 1970s in particular. It argues that the conceptual distinction between the spheres of privacy, civil society and the state should not entice to ignore the interactions and interdependencies between these spheres. Instead, the protection of privacy should be understood as a precondition for social justice and equality and thus as fundamental for the development of a civil society. The first part of the paper deals with definitions for the relation between the private and the public, juxtaposing two contradicting definitions prevalent in the literature. The second part resumes the different stages of legislation in data protection since the 1970s, mainly in the European context, pointing out how the legal concept of privacy has been redefined over the past decades, from an individualistic to a social concept. The third part examines the recent privacy legislation in Switzerland and shows that the protection of privacy, for which the institutions of the government played an important role, sums up to the protection of basic civil rights, as the protection from unjust discrimination. The conclusion discusses the implications of the case study for understanding the relation between the realms of privacy, civil society and the state.