| Author (Person) | Woods, Lorna |
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| Series Title | EU Law Analysis |
| Series Details | 16.09.18 |
| Publication Date | 16/09/2018 |
| Content Type | Journal | Series | Blog |
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Analysis of the judgement in ECtHR Applications nos. 58170/13 - 62322/14 - 24960/15 Big Brother Watch and Others v the United Kingdom given on the 13 September 2018. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the UK’s mass interception programmes breached the Article 8 right to privacy enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. This judgment was the latest in a line of cases that dealt with secret surveillance, a topic which seemed to be appearing increasingly frequently in a post-Snowden world. The judgment was substantial (over 200 pages in length) and dealt with three cases challenging the UK’s now mainly repealed Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) as regards to interception of communications in bulk, the acquisition of communications data and the sharing of intercepted communications and communications data between the UK and the United States of America: Big Brother Watch (app no. 58170/13), Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Alice Ross (app no. 62322/14) and 10 Human Rights Organisations (app. no. 24960/15). It followed in the steps of the Liberty case (ECtHR app no. 58243/00) against the previous regime and, given the similarity between some aspects of RIPA and the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA), might have relevance for an understanding of that act too. In addition to questions about Article 8, the judgment also dealt with the impact of surveillance on freedom of speech under Article 10 ECHR. This blog post was the first of two on the judgment. It outlined the issues and the Court’s reasoning. The second blog post (see below) commented on the judgment. Given the size of the judgment that would be just an initial reaction to the judgment – there would, no doubt, be much more to be said. |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/09/analysis-of-ecthr-judgment-in-big.html |
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| Subject Categories | Law, Values and Beliefs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe, United Kingdom, United States |
