Privacy: Common law or human right?

Abstract

Introduction The enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) in the United Kingdom marked a turning point, ‘a shift of the centre of gravity', in the protection of privacy in English law by requiring courts in the United Kingdom to give effect to the right of respect for private and family life contained in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The shift has resulted in the development of an action or actions, however described, that prevent wrongful interference with an individual's private information. A corpus of new case law, some of the highest authority, has emerged, as well as a large body of academic commentary. This is in sharp contras..