Individual Rights to Privacy in UK

Running head: INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS TO PRIVACY IN UK
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS TO PRIVACY IN UK
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS TO PRIVACY IN UK1
Introduction
The protection of the basic human rights such as rights to individual privacy is guaranteed by the
constitution in any country. In the United Kingdom too, the Human Rights Act 1998 protects the
basic human rights. The act is based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). the
right to respect the family and the right to private life are guaranteed under article 8 of the
Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). In any democratic country, the fundamental principle is that all
the citizens are equal and all have the right to privacy. This right is critical to the effectiveness of
democracy. In several countries, the constitution is formed in parts by the statement of citizens’
rights. The ECHR is one such treaty that safeguards the citizens from the breach of rights such as
freedom from torture, the right to have a fair trial and the right to be free from discrimination. It
is important for any working democracy that the above stated and other such rights must be
protected in order to make the democracy more powerful.
The aim of the essay is to argue on the issue of UK law not providing adequate protection to an
individual’s right to privacy. The essay will debate in disagreement of the statement and provide
examples to prove the argument. The essay will make use of the various cases and statutes to
provide evidence of the UK law not being effective to protect individual right to privacy.
Discussion
The Human Rights Act 1998
As stated in the previous section, UK has the HRA 1998 that guarantees rights of privacy to the
individual. An Act of Parliament of the UK, the HRA received the Royal Accent on 9 November
1998 and came into force from October 2000. The main aim for the introduction of the act was to
incorporate the rights contained in the ECHR within the UK law. As per this act, the citizens of

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS TO PRIVACY IN UK2
UK need not go to the European Court of Human Rights in case of any breach of the
Convention. The law specifically forbids any public body to involve in acts that are incompatible
with the Convention.
The main mechanisms of the Human Rights Act 1998 are discussed in the sections 2, 3
and 4 of the Act. Section 2 of the act interprets convention rights, section 3 interprets legislation,
in the section 4 of the act declarations of incompatibility are mentioned. Section 2 of the act
states that while determining questions arisen in connection with convention rights by any court
or tribunal a few factors should be taken into account. This factors are- judgments, decisions,
declarations or advisory opinions of the European Court of Human Rights, opinions of the
Commission given in a report that has been adopted under Article 31 of the Convention,
decisions of the Committee of Minister under Article 46 of the Convention, decisions of the
Commission in connection to Article 26 or 27(2) of Convention.
In the case R V S of S for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, ex p Alconbury
Developments Ltd [2001]1 referring to many decisions of the European Court of Human Rights
on article 6 of the Convention it was stated that although it is not provided by the Human Rights
Act 1998 that a national court is bound by the decisions yet the courts are obliged to take into
account the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The clear duty of the domestic
courts in regard to give practical recognition to the principles of the Strasbourg Court in
governing the Convention rights specified in section 1(1) of the HRA.
In the section 3 of the HRA provisions relating to interpretation of legislation are given.
Part 1 of the section it is stated that as far as possible primary legislation and subordinate
1 R V S of S for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, ex p Alconbury Developments
Ltd [2001] UKHL 23