What does the right to be oneself entail? And how is it manifest in our understanding of the law?

The leading commentator on this subject explores these questions, taking an ambitious and multi-faceted approach. To answer them, he draws on private law, jurisprudence, constitutional law, as well as history, art and literature. This treatise, translated from the Italian original and expanded to give a more international perspective, is the seminal work on the development of identity-protection through law.