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Name: Gordon
Family Name: NARDELL
Affiliation: 39 Essex Street Chambers, London
Personal web-site: www.39essex.com/index.php?pro_id=000038
Short BIO
Gordon Nardell is a barrister at 39 Essex Street Chambers in London, specialising in public law, human rights and environmental law. He previously practised at the former European Commission of Human Rights and the Legal Affairs Directorate of the Council of Europe and was a member of the drafting team for the 1998 UK Human Rights Act. Gordon regularly appears in high-profile human rights cases. He acted for the UK NGO Liberty in its successful application to the European Court of Human Rights in the interception case Liberty and others v. UK.
Title of the presentation
The European Convention on Human Rights: data privacy after Liberty v. UK
Abstract
A State intrusion into personal privacy breaches Article 8 of the Convention unless it is “in accordance with the law” and “necessary in a democratic society”. The law must adequately define the scope of the State’s powers and the constraints on their exercise. The UK Interception of Communications Act 1985 enabled the security services to obtain a warrant from a Minister authorising indiscriminate interception of huge numbers of communications to and from the United Kingdom. Data for further examination were selected from the pool of intercepted material using search engines and keyword lists. The selection process was not controlled by the Act but by secret "arrangements" made by the Minister. In its judgment in Liberty and others v. UK, issued in July 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the system gave the government a “virtually unfettered discretion” which failed the “in accordance with the law” standard. This presentation examines the impact of the case on the legal framework for data-mining and similar covert State activity.
On-line publications
Keeping up appearances: Local authorities and the rule against bias (2008)
Parliament and the courts: hunting for boundaries (2005)
CPDP Conference Who is Who
