The descontruction of the right to oblivion in the brazilian law and the contribution of french court decisions

Abstract

The idea of the right to oblivion, understood as the right to demand that negative experiences, that have had lawful publicity in the past will not become the object of new reports at the present moment, that is, that they will not be reviewed and remembered after the course of a certain time, has been strengthened through abundant doctrines and judicial decisions. Due to such scenario, it is relevant to investigate if there is in the Brazilian legal system any right with such characteristics. With the aim of demonstrating the hypothesis of inexistence of the right to oblivion, there are three central arguments in the study: (1) the right to oblivion is incompatible with the constitutional guarantees of the freedom of journalistic information, of the free expression of thought, of the prohibition of censorship and of the access to information; (2) the right to oblivion – whose recognition is indefensible – should not be confused with the right to isolation, which is a genuine projection of the right to privacy; (3) the right to oblivion, unlike what appears to be sometimes assumed, is not supported by French court decisions, and it is a mistake to invoke them in order to vindicate the plausibility of the allegations in judicial proceedings involving this matter. The approach method was deductive, the procedure method was monographic, and the research technique was bibliographic and documentary.