A partir de um diálogo com a crítica feminista às dicotomias entre o público e o privado, a autora define os limites e contornos do direito à privacidade, considerado um aspecto central à autonomia e ao direito ao corpo. O comunitarismo e as correntes feministas que defendem a superação das fronteiras entre público e privado são criticados pela incapacidade de garantir o respeito às decisões autônomas dos indivíduos, sobretudo no que concerne seu corpo, sua vida afetiva e aspectos relevantes da sua identidade. A garantia da privacidade é vista como algo necessário à afirmação das identidades individuais e à proteção dos indivíduos em relação às práticas e valores majoritários na comunidade em que estão inseridos. O direito ao aborto constitui o direito à privacidade, assim definido.

In a dialogue with feminist criticism to public-private dichotomies, the author defines limits and outlines of the right to privacy, considered as a core aspect of autonomy and the right to the body. Communitarianism and feminist streams that advocate overcoming boundaries between what is public and private are criticized for their inability to guarantee respect for individual's autonomous decisions, especially regarding their bodies, their affective lives, and relevant aspects of their identities. Guarantee of privacy is seen as necessary to ascertain individual identities and protect individuals from majority values and practices within the communities they are part of. The right to abortion constitutes the right to privacy, thus defined.

The discourse of civil society has gone global. Once again theorists of democracy are placing their bets on civil society to generate solidarity, publicity, civicness, awareness of new forms of injustice, and democracy vis-à-vis the new world order. Yet too many analysts are naïvely optimistic or ideological about global civil society's democratizing role. In order to visualize the proper role of civil society in the global context, careful systematic analysis is needed concerning the ways in which globalization has transformed the key parameters of civil society and how such changes recursively affect how civil society impacts national, regional, transnational, and supranational bodies. There can be no vital democracy without civil society, but civil society cannot replace constitutional democracy or the rule of law at any level of government.

Le discours de la société civile est d'habitude mondialisé. Une fois de plus, les théoriciens de la démocratie situent leurs enjeux dans la société civile pour engendrer solidarité, citoyenneté, droits civils, rejet de nouvelles formes d'injustice, et démocratie face au nouvel ordre mondial. Mais trop d'analystes sont naïvement optimistes ou marqués par l'idéologie à propos du rôle démocratique de la société civile globale. Afin d'examiner le rôle exact de cette société dans le cadre mondialisé, il faut effectuer une analyse soignée et systématique des façons selon lesquelles la mondialisation a transformé les indicateurs de la société civile et comment, par conséquent, ces transformations se répercutent sur la société civile dans le domaine national, régional, transnational et supranational. Il n'y a pas de démocratie vivante sans société civile, mais la société civile ne peut remplacer, à aucun niveau de l'exercice de gouverner, la démocratie constitutionnelle ou la norme de la loi.