Legal fight over royal vacation photos highlights difference between European and American views of privacy and free speech
Britain’s royal family has obtained an injunction against the French magazine Closer to prevent it from publishing topless photographs of the Duchess of
Cambridge, Kate Middleton. “The case would likely come out differently if
it were brought in the United States,” says Neil Richards, JD,
professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Richards, an internationally recognized expert in privacy and free speech law who hails from England, explains that English and European courts have been very aggressive in stopping media
from publishing pictures delving into the sex lives of celebrities.