Book review. Laws of Image. Privacy and Publicity in America by Samantha Barbas (Stanford University Press, 2015)

The book Laws of Image. Privacy and Publicity in America adds an interesting historical viewpoint to the ongoing debate about privacy and personality rights. Although the author’s perspective focuses on the US scenario, European readers are immediately driven to compare the development of the culture and legal protection of privacy and image in the US with the corresponding history of privacy in Europe. Moreover, in these days characterised by the Transatlantic dialogue on data protection, better knowledge of the social and cultural foundations of the American libel and privacy torts is indispensable to going beyond simplistic distinctions or polarisations.