Privacy

Legislation is a “crude and inflexible tool” as far as protecting rights of privacy is concerned, Desmond Browne QC has warned.
Addressing a Conservative Party Conference fringe meeting, the Chairman of the Bar Council looked at the way the courts and Parliament have handled the balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression. 

“I believe that the incremental development of the law by the judges has proved to be infinitely preferable to the big bang of legislation,” he said. “I think that the case law, European and domestic, which lays down that neither the right to privacy nor that to freedom of expression has presumptive pre-eminence over the other is the right approach.” 

The Australian Bar Association Conference examined how English law deals with human rights considerations, privacy issues and direct access, reports Justice Glenn Martin.  

Why did 150 Australian barristers and judges come to London in June to hear about the law of England and Wales? We, the Australian Bar Association (“ABA”), came precisely because the law is, to varying degrees, different in this jurisdiction. And because of the different ways in which the profession and the judiciary have dealt with problems which have also arisen in Australia. And because exposure to different ideas and attitudes challenges you to re-assess your own decisions and behaviour.