Invasion of Privacy: Some Communicative Torts Whose Time Has Gone

Because invasion of privacy developed from a late nineteenth century law review article motivated in large part by personal animus against the yellow press of the era rather than through traditional incremental common-law decision making, and because it has no central trunk but rather four disparate branches whose supposedly protected interests are subject to debate,\u27 this complex of torts presents numerous operational problems for our judicial system. Constitutional problems are created as well by the generation of tension if not direct conflict with first amendment interests when civil liability is imposed for certain kinds of communication. And if all this perplexity were not troublesome enough, to a considerable extent the tort is redundant in that a number of its branches overlap or parallel other established torts including trespass to both real and personal property, libel, slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress