欧洲法上的人权与人格权保护

Human Rights and the Protection of Personality Rights in Europe

欧洲各国大致通过三种途径实现对人格权的民法保护。其中欧陆法系国家有两种,一部分是关注一般人格权保护,另一部分是注重具体人格权保护,而英国法则是关注违法行为本身以及不同侵权个案的具体情形。无论哪种保护方式,核心问题是要区分人格权内涵的不同领域而予以不同程度的法律保护。对法律地位清晰明确、显而易见以及法律位阶较高的人格权益,应予以较高程度的保护,反之,则应给予较低程度的保护或者不予保护。宪法性权利可以对私权产生间接却重要的影响,人权对人格权的影响也是如此。欧洲许多国家便是通过解读《欧洲人权公约》来寻求人格权的法律保护。与此同时,欧洲人权法院在适用《欧洲人权公约》的过程中,试图促成欧洲各国人格权保护的统一标准。在侵害人格权的法律后果上,是否适用非财产损害赔偿,是反映一个国家对人格权保护是否充分以及适当的试金石。基于对侵权法补偿功能的考量,并不适宜将惩罚性赔偿引入人格权法律保护。

The civil protection of personality rights in Europe features three quite distinctive lines of development ： Whereas the continental European jurisdictions focus partly on a general personality right, partly on a number of different single personality rights, English law pays greater attention to the act of violation itself and hence concentrates on individual case scenarios. Despite of these differences, the crucial point is to work out and formulate the quite different areas of protection. If the areas of personality are sharply defined, evident and take the top positions in the legal hierarchy, they enjoy a very extensive legal protection. By way of contrast, if the areas of personality are considerably less sharply defined, to a lesser extent evident and of lesser rank and value, the protection of such rights is distinctly weaker. Constitutional rights have an indirect but important effect on private law. Such fundamental rights have to be taken into consideration while interpreting some general clauses to develop some personality rights enshrined in. The European Court of Human Rights tries to achieve a European standard by interpreting the Convention in a dynamic and evolutionary way. On the issue of Legal Consequences of a Violation of Personality Rights, the compensation of non-pecuniary losses is nothing less than a litmus test of whether a jurisdiction is prepared to protect personality rights duly and properly or not. On considerations of the function of compensating the victim for their harm and not of punishing the tortfeasor, it is not proper to grant punitive damages in respect of non-pecuniary losses.