Chapter 15 Multiple choice questions

1. Which one of the following sentences most accurately expresses the point and purpose of Article 8?

Article 8 bans all interferences with private life, etc. caused by the actions or inactions of a public authority.

Article 8 bans all unjustified interferences with private life, etc. whether caused by the direct actions of public bodies or private individuals or companies.

Article 8 bans all interferences with private life, etc. for which the State is responsible, and which cannot be justified.

Article 8 bans all unjustified interferences with private life, etc. caused directly by the actions of public authorities.

2. Complete the blank in this quotation from an early European Court of Human Rights case.
The Court recalls that although the object of Article 8 is essentially that of protecting the individual against arbitrary interference by the public authorities, it does not merely compel the State to abstain from such interference: in addition to this primarily negative undertaking, there may be ……... ……….. inherent in an effective respect for private or family life. These obligations may involve the adoption of measures designed to secure respect for private life even in the sphere of the relations of individuals between themselves.

3. Match the aspect of respect for private life with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case that placed it within the ambit (the scope) of Article 8(1).

Respect for 'autonomy'—a person's right to be self-directed and make their own choices in life.

Respect for a person's privacy even when they are in a public place (depending on the context) even if they are also a figure in whose life the public are interested.

Access to personal information, at least where this is necessary for a person's sense of identity or safety.

A person's psychological health.

4. Which of the following are accurate statements of the extent to which Article 8 requires the authorities to ensure that a person has a home to live in? Please select all that apply.

The right under Article 8(1) is a right to respect for a person's home; this sometimes (exceptionally) means that the State is under a duty to provide a person with a home they would not otherwise have.

Where a landlord has a clear legal right to evict a tenant (where the lease has ended or has been broken in a way that creates a right to evict), Article 8 is engaged, but the eviction will normally be justified under Article 8(2).

Where a public landlord (e.g. a local authority or some housing associations) has a clear legal right to evict, Article 8 is not engaged at all and so justification under Article 8(2) does not need to be considered.

Where a public landlord (e.g. a local authority or some housing associations) has a clear legal right to evict, Article 8(1) is engaged, but, usually, justification under Article 8(2) will be a accepted; only the most compelling reasons will mean that eviction would be in breach of Article 8(2).

5. The ECHR features no express rights to a decent environment. As such, it has no significance for those harmed by pollution or other environmental harms.

True

False

6. Match the Strasbourg case on the right with the facts and circumstances given in the right hand column.

A blanket ban on homosexual men and women in the armed forces, forcing them to leave irrespective of their abilities and because of who they were rather than what they had done, was found to engage Article 8(1) and not to be justified under Article 8(2).

Consensual, sado-masochistic, acts were held to be criminal under UK law. There was no violation of the Convention because this was a moral question which was within the margin of appreciation of the states involved.

The laws relating to homosexual men were discriminatory in the sense that they criminalized group sex or sex in the presence of others, acts which were not crimes when done by heterosexual people. The Court of Human Rights found this to be an unjustified breach of Article 8.

Laws which made it a crime for homosexual men to have consensual sex even in private, were held to breach Article 8 of the Convention. However, a challenge to these laws could only be brought by a homosexual man who might have been affected by them, not by a campaigning pressure group.

7. Among the list of legitimate purposes for which the rights in Article 8(1) can be interfered with by a public authority is one that is not found in Articles 9(2), 10(2) or 11(2) and is, perhaps, surprising to find in any human rights instrument. This is that the right to respect for private life, etc. can be restricted in the interests of ………'.

8. Which one of the following is most likely not to involve a breach of Article 8?

Secret filming of a criminal suspect by journalists working for a TV company.

Secret surveillance of a criminal suspect undertaken by police on the basis of a warrant obtained from the Home Secretary, who has statutory powers to issue such warrants if he thinks it appropriate.

Secret surveillance by the police based on a warrant obtained under the terms of an Act of Parliament that permits surveillance under certain conditions.

Secret surveillance of a criminal suspect undertaken by police as part of their normal crime detection activities.

9. Which one of the following statements best expresses the general approach to abortion of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)?

States may not seek to restrict, through their laws, the availability of abortion to women in the first three months of pregnancy.

Since, under the Convention, States have a wide margin of appreciation over the moment when life starts and Article 2 protection for the life of the embryo/foetus/child begins, States may have laws that ban abortion in all circumstances.

Since, under the Convention, States have a wide margin of appreciation over the moment when life starts and Article 2 protection for the life of the embryo/foetus/child begins, States may have laws that are completely 'pro-choice' and allow a woman to have an abortion at any time, if she so chooses.

Under the Convention, States have a wide margin of appreciation over the moment when life starts and Article 2 protection for the life of the embryo/foetus/child begins. States must regulate abortion, however, and avoid an abortion law that, by being over-restrictive or too liberal, fails to give full recognition to Convention rights.

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