Land Law and Human Rights - Assignment Example

For the first time, the UK implemented a piece of legislation akin to a constitutional Bill of Rights, protecting essential human rights and freedoms2. Prior to 1998, there had been no British constitutional statement regarding basic human rights similar to those found in the constitutional provisions of other democracies3. This new human rights “Charter” now has direct legal effect and protection in the UK.The HRA has been labelled as one of the most important domestic legal developments for a generation because it is the closest the UK has come to acknowledging a written charter of guaranteed fundamental freedoms, which must be considered and protected under national law4.

The focus of this analysis is to critically evaluate the statement that the rights of lesbians, homosexuals and transsexuals have been greatly enhanced by the ECHR. To this end, it is submitted that Articles 8 and 14 of the ECHR are of particular significance.Firstly, it is submitted that the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence under Article 8 right to privacy has been especially pertinent to sexual privacy, which has de facto strengthened protection of homosexuals and transsexuals. In the case of Dudgeon v United Kingdom5 for example, the Court asserted that the right to private life under Article 8 included the right to enjoy one’s private sexual life.

The result of this was that the Northern Ireland law prohibiting certain sexual activities between men constituted a violation of Article 8. The court further held that an individual’s sexual life was an intimate aspect of one’s private life and that strong justification would require interference with it and it was not sufficient to demonstrate that the majority of society disapproved of homosexuals.