On the Structure of Rights and Interests relating to Personal Information

Author: Zhou Hanhua

Author: Zhou Hanhua

 

 

Abstract: Prior to the promulgation of the General Principles of Civil Law, the Chinese laws regulating the relationship between personal information protection and the right to privacy had two characteristics: one was parallel application without overlap, and the other was incremental progress, giving higher degree of protection to personal information. The Book on the Right of Personality in the Chinese Civil Code combines personal information protection and right to privacy by providing for crisscrossing application, thus creating quite a few problems, including reconstructing the relationship between personal information protection and right to privacy and applying mechanically the logic of privacy protection to personal information protection. Adhering to the parallel application, being based on systematic institutional design, properly handling the relationship between the Personal Information Protection Law and the Civil Code, and enabling different mechanisms to play their respective roles  are conducive to the formation of a polycentric governance structure of public-private law coordination structure.

 

Key Words: persona information protection; right to privacy; parallel application; personal information protection law; the Book on the Right of Personality in the Chinese Civil Code

 

Author: Zhou Hanhua, deputy director and research fellow, CASS Law Institute;

Source: 5 (2021) Peking University Law Journal