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European court: rules on privacy (1)

01 January 1991

European court: rules on privacy
artdoc July=1993

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that business
premises can under some circumstances fall under the protection
of article 8 of the European Convention. In the Niemietz case,
a lawyer's office was searched in 1986 to obtain evidence against
an anonymous person who used the pseudonym `Klaus Wegner' and who
as a member of the political party Bunte Liste in Freiburg ran
a campaign against the supposed abuse of power by a judge (Mr.
Miosga). The Bunte Liste had used the lawyer's post box as its
mail address. The European Court concluded that there was a
breach of article 8, mainly because the interference was not
`necessary in a democratic society' (ie: the offence in
connection with which the search was effected was not
sufficiently grave to justify the intrusion in the privacy,
especially as it was a lawyer's office). The Court argued that
it did not consider it possible or necessary to attempt an
exhaustive definition of the notion of `private life' but
considered that the words `private life' and `home' included
certain professional or business activities or premises would be
consonant with the essential object and purpose of article 8,
namely to protect the individual against arbitrary interference
by the public authorities.
ECHR 16 XII 1992: Niemietz case against Germany.

Statewatch vol 3 no 3 May-June 1993