Genetic Data and the Right to Privacy: Towards a Relational Theory of Privacy?

Abstract

This article examines the lacunae in contemporary understandings of the right to privacy which genetic data exposes. In particular, the article argues that the nature of genetic data challenges modern, individualistic conceptions of privacy which have come to dominate human rights law in the twenty-first century. The article suggests that the seeds of a new understanding of privacy which integrates existing individualistic understanding with the need to acknowledge the relational nature of modern privacy can be located in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and Court of Justice of the European Union. The article offers some initial thoughts on how a relational theory of privacy based on this jurisprudence would function, and argues that further engagement with how to reconcile the collective impacts of genetic data processing and individualistic understandings of privacy is needed.