Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Right to Private Life

  • Guest Blogger

Stuck in the middle with Papageorgiou: Missed or new opportunities?

November 27, 2019

Effie Fokas is a political scientist and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, Research Associate of the London School of Economics Hellenic Observatory, and member of the Henry Luce/Leadership 100 project on Orthodoxy and Human Rights (Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University). She was also Principal Investigator of […]

  • Guest Blogger

Suspicionless Stop and Search Powers at the Border and Article 8: Beghal v United Kingdom

April 18, 2019

By John Ip, University of Auckland Faculty of Law On 28 February 2019, the First Section Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its decision in Beghal v United Kingdom, a de facto appeal from a 2015 UK Supreme Court decision concerning the question of whether Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act […]

  • Guest Blogger

Another case of violating privacy and personal data protection: Catt v. the United Kingdom

February 22, 2019

This blogpost was written by Judith Vermeulen, PhD researcher in the Law and Technology Research Group at Ghent University. Shortly after Big Brother Watch (see also the blogpost for this case), the European Court of Human Rights again had the opportunity to pronounce itself on the compatibility of Article 8 ECHR with the collection, retention […]

  • Guest Blogger

S.V. v. Italy: on temporality and transgender persons

October 19, 2018

By Pieter Cannoot, PhD Researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University On 11 October 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 8 ECHR in a case involving a transsexual woman called S.V. The application concerned the Italian authorities’ refusal to authorise S.V. officially changing her first name on […]

  • Guest Blogger

Big brother may continue watching you

October 12, 2018

By Judith Vermeulen (PhD Candidate, Law & Technology Research Group, Ghent University) On 13 September 2018, more than five years after Edward Snowden revealed the existence of electronic (mass) surveillance programmes run by the intelligence services of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) found two […]

  • Guest Blogger

“Bulk interception of communications in Sweden meets Convention standards”: the latest addition to mass surveillance case law by the European Court of Human Rights

July 09, 2018

By Plixavra Vogiatzoglou, Legal Researcher, KU Leuven Centre for IT and IP Law (CiTiP) On 19th June 2018, the Third Section of the Court, in its judgment in the case Centrum för Rättvisa v. Sweden, ruled that the bulk interception of communications scheme of the Foreign Intelligence of Sweden meets the Convention standards. This ruling […]

  • Guest Blogger

Benedik v Slovenia: Police need a court order to access subscriber information associated with a dynamic IP address

June 01, 2018

By Argyro Chatzinikolaou, (Doctoral Researcher), Law & Technology research group, Ghent University Recently, the Fourth Section of the Court held in its judgement in the case of Benedik v Slovenia that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) with regard to the failure of the Slovenian […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Whereabouts Requirement: Does the ECtHR protect the right to respect for private and family life of French sport professionals?

February 16, 2018

This guest post was written by Cathérine Van de Graaf, a PhD student at Ghent University. In a judgment on 18 January 2018, the fifth Chamber of the ECtHR found no violation of the right to private and family life in Fédération Nationale des Syndicats Sportifs (FNASS) and Others v France. The case concerned the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Egill Einarsson v Iceland: the Court deals with an offensive Instagram post

January 19, 2018

This guest post was written by Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University* On 7 November 2017 the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR, the Court) found a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The main issue at hand was the Court’s assessment of whether the right balance between the applicant’s right […]

  • Guest Blogger

Tamiz v. UK: Google’s blog-publishing service is not liable for offensive comments

November 23, 2017

This guest post was written by Ingrida Milkaite (Ghent University)* On 12 October 2017 the European Court of Human Rights (the Court, the ECtHR) decided on the liability of Google Inc. as an information society service provider for offensive comments posted below a blog post about Mr Payam Tamiz. His application filed under article 8 […]

  • Guest Blogger

Bărbulescu v Romania and workplace privacy: is the Grand Chamber’s judgment a reason to celebrate?

October 19, 2017

By Argyro Chatzinikolaou, (Doctoral Student), Law & Technology, Faculty of Law, Ghent University The recent judgment of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR in the case of Bărbulescu v Romania found that the monitoring of an employee’s email account resulted in the violation of his right to respect for private life and correspondence within the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Publication of a picture of a 3-year-old, representing him as an orphan, violates article 8 ECHR

July 19, 2017

By Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University The case of Bogomolova v. Russia concerns the use of an unauthorised photograph of a minor’s face on the front page of a booklet promoting adoption and help for orphans. It proves that the publication of pictures of children without parental consent may have a significant social impact on the […]

  • Guest Blogger

No journalism exception for massive exposure of personal taxation data

July 05, 2017

By Dirk Voorhoof, Ghent University, Human Rights Centre.  After long proceedings at national level, after a preliminary ruling by the EU Court of Justice on 16 December 2008 (Case C-73/07), and after the European Court of Human Rights Chamber judgment of 21 July 2015, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR on 27 June 2017 finally […]

  • Guest Blogger

A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France: the Court draws a line for trans rights

May 05, 2017

By Pieter Cannoot, PhD researcher of human rights law (Ghent University) On 6 April 2017, the European Court of Human Rights significantly strengthened the human rights protection of trans persons, with its long-awaited judgment in the case A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France. The Court ruled that the condition of compulsory sterilizing surgery or treatment […]

  • Guest Blogger

Paradiso and Campanelli v. Italy: Lost in Recognition. Filiation of an Adopted Embryo born by Surrogate Woman in a Foreign Country

April 04, 2017

By Elena Ignovska, Assistant professor, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Law, Skopje, Macedonia. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) undoubtedly triggered an earthquake in the concept of parenthood, resulting in a fragmentation of the possible parents: genetic/biological, gestational, factual and legal. Their initial objective was to enable infertile couples to parent genetically related progeny. Yet, […]

  • Guest Blogger

Resuscitating Workplace Privacy? A Brief Account of the Grand Chamber Hearing in Bărbulescu v. Romania

December 20, 2016

Guest post by Gaurav Mukherjee[1] and James Wookey[2] On 30 November 2016, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) heard oral arguments in Bărbulescu v. Romania. The case was referred to the Grand Chamber on 6 June 2016, after a Chamber judgment delivered on 12 January 2016.  The applicant sent private […]

  • Guest Blogger

On a positive note: B.A.C. v. Greece

November 21, 2016

By Ellen Desmet, assistant professor of migration law at Ghent University. On 13 October 2016, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously found in B.A.C. v. Greece that the Greek state’s omission to decide on an asylum application during more than twelve years violated Article 8 as well as Article 13 in conjunction with Article […]

  • Guest Blogger

Crossing the Very Fine Line between Justice and Vengeance: Massive Purges in the Aftermath of the Attempted Coup in Turkey

October 18, 2016

Guest post by Duygu Çiçek – LL.M. in Human Rights from the University of Edinburgh (2015-2016) Turkey’s recent attempted coup of the 15th of July exposed various discussions and conspiracy theories about the reasons behind the coup as well as future concerns regarding political dynamics at the domestic and international level. This contribution, however, will […]

  • Guest Blogger

Ramadan v. Malta: When will the Strasbourg Court understand that nationality is a core human rights issue?

July 22, 2016

This guest post was written by Marie-Bénédicte Dembour, Professor of Law and Anthropology at Brighton Business School, University of Brighton. (*) It does not seem an exaggeration to say that the recent judgment in Ramadan v. Malta suggests that citizenship revocation is not generally problematic under the European Convention on Human Rights. How else might […]

  • Stijn Smet

Fürst-Pfeifer v Austria: “A one-sided, unbalanced and fundamentally unjust judgment”?

June 16, 2016

By Stijn Smet In Fürst-Pfeifer v Austria, the majority of the Fourth Section of the ECtHR ruled that the applicant’s right to private life was outweighed by the freedom of expression of an online publication and offline newspaper. In one of the fiercest and most poignant dissenting opinions I have read to date, judges Wojtyczek […]

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