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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 20 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • Privacy has long been recognised as one of the important human rights and this is reflected in religion and history. There are, for example, references to privacy in the Qur'an, the Bible and Jewish law....
 

Part A: What is privacy?

  • Defining privacy Resource
  • Before considering the extent to which privacy is protected in UK law we first need to understand exactly what privacy means and what a right to privacy protects. As with many human rights, privacy is...
  • Balancing the right to privacy and other rights Resource
  • Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects freedom of expression. Section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998 requires the courts in the UK to have particular regard to the importance of...
  • Summary of part A Resource
  • The right to privacy includes:
 

Part B: The right to privacy in the UK

  • Background information Resource
  • As stated in the introduction, there is no right to privacy in UK law. In Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1979) the UK courts held that telephone tapping by the police could not be unlawful...
  • The right to confidence Resource
  • Those who allege that their privacy has been invaded commonly rely on the action of ‘breach of the right to confidence’. The common law right to confidence is a recognised right. The essence of the right...
  • Summary of part B Resource
  • There is no right to privacy in UK law. Individuals who allege an invasion of privacy rely on one of the following:
 

Part C: Development of the right to confidence into a right to privacy

  • The expansion of the right to confidence Resource
  • While there is no common law right to privacy, the law relating to breach of confidence has been expanded to a degree which suggests that privacy claims are now being given greater protection. The right...
  • Is there a right to privacy in the UK? Resource
  • From these cases it seems that a duty of confidence clearly exists where confidential information comes to the knowledge of the media. However, the courts are not willing to limit the media's freedom of...
  • Summary of part C Resource
  • What the courts have established in the cases we have looked at is not a hard and fast privacy doctrine, but a situation in which each case is decided by individual judges on its particular merits. There...
 

Part D: Article 8 of the European Convention

  • The right to privacy and the state Resource
  • The European Convention on Human Rights impacts upon legal rules in the UK. The European Convention protects a series of fundamental human rights. All final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights...
  • The protection of private interests in public places Resource
  • Thus far we have seen how the European Court of Human Rights has used the right to a private life to protect individuals from excessive police surveillance, interception of their private correspondence...
  • Revision exercises Resource
  • Activities 11, 12 and 13 are revision exercises which will test your understanding of issues you have studied throughout this unit. You may wish to revise the unit at this stage. Alternatively, you may...
  • Summary of part D Resource
  • Article 8 protects the right to respect for private life, family life, home and correspondence.
 

Review of the learning outcomes

 

References and Acknowledgements

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