Privacy on parade

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Judges are creating new privacy case law with each new ruling. And with the lack of parliamentary legislation


You have 24 hours to stop the nationwide publication of your personal sex diary, which has been stolen to order by your cleaner for a national newspaper.

Chances are that you will have a better chance these days of keeping your privates private than you might have had a few years ago.

As 5 Raymond Buildings barrister Iain Christie remarks: "Broadly speaking we're seeing judgments and remedies in favour of individuals that assert certain privacy rights that you wouldn't have seen before."

This is largely as a result of the Human Rights Act (HRA), which in 2000 introduced a right to respect for someone's private and family life.

The tension is between Article 8, which asserts privacy, and Article 10, which asserts freedom of expression. Article 8 says: "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence."

"It's the first time in English law that we've had such a positive right stated in those terms," says Christie. "Since then courts have been trying to balance privacy with the right to freedom of expression, which always exists in media cases.

"The law's being developed by the judges on a case-by-case basis." And among those judges, one stands out as the most influential man in this sensitive field: Mr Justice Eady.

The High Court
Almost all media ...