A Comprehensive Report on Privacy Law Approaches in the United Kingdom

This report delves into the multifaceted approaches to privacy law within the United Kingdom, commencing with an introduction to the unwritten constitution and the significance of administrative law. The main body explores the four facets of privacy—information, bodily, communication, and territorial—and discusses relevant legislation, including the Human Rights Act of 1998 and its Article 8, which protects the right to respect for private and family life. The report examines the emergence of privacy concepts, citing landmark cases like Entick v. Carrington, Coco v. A.N. Clark (Engineers) Ltd, and Kaye v. Robertson, illustrating the evolution of privacy protection. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact of the Human Rights Act, 1998, and its exceptions, along with the right to privacy in the internet age, emphasizing cyber offenses and the Data Protection Act. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, highlighting the interplay between common and statutory law, the exceptions to privacy rights, and the increasing relevance of privacy law in the digital era. The report utilizes various references, including books and journals, to support its findings. This report is a valuable resource for students, providing a detailed overview of the legal landscape concerning privacy in the UK.

Constitution and
Administrative Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Discuss the law approaches within the concept of the privacy..............................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The United Kingdom does not have the written constitution, rather it is partly written and
an un- codified document. The rights which are generally enumerated in the Constitution are
embodied in different legislations of UK so that the citizens can enjoy their fundamental rights.
These statutes includes Human rights Act, etc. It contains the series of the guidelines, rules, laws
and powers which governs how the nation must run and in whose hands the power lies. It is
important for the country to have the constitutional or administrative law so that the state can
function appropriately (Rojszczak, 2021). The administrative law deals with the area which
regulate and establish the institutions of the government within the state. They are mainly
concerned with relationship between external and internal norms and their interaction between
different layers of the government. This report shall cover the approaches of law within the
concept of privacy.
MAIN BODY
Discuss the law approaches within the concept of the privacy.
The concept of privacy can be divided into four facets which involves the following- information- It involves establishment of rules in order to govern the handling and
collection of the personal data like credit or medial details. Bodily- It is concerned with the protection of physical selves of people against the
invasion procedure like drug testing. Privacy of communication- It covers the privacy and security of telephones, mails and
other communication forms.
 Territorial- It is concerned with setting limits on the intrusion in domestic and other
environment like public space or workplace (Smith, 2020).
The law of privacy is the set of laws which mainly deals with regulation, use and storage
of the personally identifiable information, financial or health related information that can be
collected by the private or public company, governments or the individuals. The privacy law is
considered within context of privacy right of an individual or within the reasonable expectation
of the privacy. Under the international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides
that every person has right to privacy. The interpretation of this law is harmonious and its varies
from country to country. The European Convention on the Human Rights explicitly contains the

declaration which provides that the individual has the right to have the private life and
information both protected.
As a result the United Kingdom, in order to adhere with the European Convention on
Human rights, enacted the domestic legislation of Human rights Act of 1998. This legislation
transposed in the domestic legislation of the UK's long standing obligation under EUHR. Article
8 of the Human rights Act states that every person has right to respect its private and family life,
his/ her home and his correspondence (Barnes, 2020).
Emergence of privacy
The concept of privacy is first referred to in context of right of person to not have its
activities in home which is imposed on by state or others. This concept have emerged as the
notion in the common law which is also referred to as the judge made law in 18th century till the
20th century when the European Convention on Human rights have been integrated into the
domestic law of UK through the Human rights Act, 1998.
In the case of Entick v. Carrington1, a person broke in the house of Carrington and
conducted the invasion search of premises. The court held that the action by state is a gross
infringement of the right of Carrington. But the problem to conceptualise the concept of privacy
and its consistent application continues to grow which resulted in many many causes of action
which may be utilised in order to protect the privacy as the ancillary right. On such example of
this is the case of Coco v. A.N. Clark (Engineers) Ltd 2 which refined principle of the breach of
confidence action. It is one of the main causes of action that can operate in order to protect the
right of privacy of people. The principle set out in this case allows the protection of people
privacy where the pre existing confidential relationship may be established. But this protection of
the privacy left the lacuna that needs to be addressed (Shere, 2020).
In the case of Kaye v. Robertson3, The court held that there is no common law relating to
right to privacy in the English law so there is also no right to action for the breach of privacy of
person. On the absence of the right of privacy, the plaintiff made their claim based on the libel,
trespass to person, malicious falsehood and passing off. The facts of case is that Kaye is an actor
who suffered from serious head injury and while he is was recovering, two journalist who posed
1 [1765] EWHC KB J98.
2 [1968] FSR 415
3 [1991] FSR 62

as doctors took his photographs in room. Kaye attempted to take the order for restraining the
publication of photographs. The Court of Appeal held that none of the tort was applicable except
the malicious falsehood and on the basis of this, the only remedy available is that the newspaper
is prohibited from stating any of the inference which Kaye has consented.
Human rights Act, 1998- Article 8
This legislation was enforced in UK in the year 2000 and Article 8 of the legislation
provides for the right to respect the private as well as the family life of individual, his home and
the correspondence. It is the qualified right which has been dynamically interpreted. But this
right is not absolute, it is subject to many exceptions. These are set out on the basis of grounds
such as national security, economic welling of nation, public safety, prevention of crime or
disorder, protection of morals or health and protection of freedom and rights of others. In the
case of Grare v. France4, the applicant have complained that imposition of the antipsychotic
drugs resulted in unpleasant side effects which breaches the Article 3 and 8 of Human rights Act.
The case was dismissed as it was justified under Article 8(2) as it was necessary in maintaining
the public order and also to protect the health of applicant (Leiser and Harbinja, 2019).
In the case of Campbell v. MGN Ltd5, the British model named Campbell was leaving the
rehabilitation clinic after recovering from drug addict. Her photographs were published in The
mirror. In this case the Court of first instance found MGN liable and awarded damages to
Campbell. Then in an appeal, The court of Appeal did not found MGN liable but in second
appeal, the House of Lords held MGN liable. The court was engaged in the balancing test, firstly
determining as to whether applicant has the reasonable expectation of privacy. And then it
considered as to whether if the claimant was successful, it would result in significant interference
with the freedom of expression. Hence the right of privacy of Campbell outweighed the freedom
of expression of MGN. It also held that the duty of confidence arises when the defendant knows
that the claimant is expecting a reasonable privacy which is to be protected.
Right to privacy in internet age
The right to privacy is firstly recognised in international law such as Article 12 of UDHR
and Article 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and many more
international convention and treaties. In order to keep the right relevant during the internet age,
4 [1991] 15 EHRR CD 100
5 [2004] UKHL 22

the United Nation expanded its mandate in Article 12 in order to ensure the digital privacy
through the UN General Assembly resolution 68/ 167 which mainly compels the states to protect
and respect the right of individual privacy in relation to digital communication through review of
the practices, procedures and laws in regards to surveillance of the communication, its
interception and collection of personal data.
There are many cyber offences nowadays prevailing which infringes the right to privacy
of an individual. One such common example is hacking which is an intrusive form of
surveillance. In order to deal with such issues, the government of UK has enacted the data
protection Act which helps in keeping the data safe and secure during the era of cyber crimes
(Olkhovik, 2020).

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the English legal system comprises of common
and statutory law. The law on privacy have emerged from the common law and continued to
grow but the government made the statutory law on it in order to comply with the European
Convention on Human rights. The Human rights Act of 1998 provides for the right to privacy
under Article 8 but this right is not absolute, rather it is subject to certain exceptions such as in
the interest of national security, public interest, protection of health or morals, prevention of
crime or disorder and many other. Nowadays, during the digital era, the relevancy of this law has
been increased due to easy access of personal data and information in just a click away. This has
given rise to many cyber crimes such as hacking, phishing, etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barnes, E.A., 2020. Negotiating the Boundaries of Our Right to Privacy: The Landscape of
Privacy Behaviors, Surveillance Capitalism, and Public Policy in the United
States (Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo).'
Leiser, M.R. and Harbinja, E., 2019. Content Not Available: Why the UK Proposal for a
‘Package of Platform Safety Measures’ Will Harm Free Speech. Available at SSRN
3438279.
Olkhovik, N., 2020. Legal Regulation of Compulsory Genomic Registration in Russia and the
UK. Legal Issues J.. 8. p.71.
Rojszczak, M., 2021. Compliance of Automatic Tax Fraud Detection Systems with the Right to
Privacy Standards Based on the Polish Experience of the STIR System. Intertax. 49(1).'
Shere, A.R., 2020. Now you [don’t] see me: how have new legislation and changing public
awareness of the UK surveillance state impacted OSINT investigations?. Journal of
Cyber Policy, pp.1-20.
Smith, R., 2020. Misconceptions and Misrepresentation: Challenging UK Media Reports of
Recent Visits of UN Special Procedures. Journal of Human Rights Practice.