This coursework is designed to assess the following learning outcomes:
- Recognise and describe the relevant rights and freedoms protected by the Convention.
- Describe and critically assess in writing the particular rights or freedoms protected by the Convention.
- Critically evaluate how Convention rights and freedoms may be protected or enforced by national courts and the European Court of Human Rights using the most up to date jurisprudence.
- Research and retrieve up-to-date legal information from a variety of primary and secondary sources and engage critically with current problems.
- Communicate information, critical argument and critical analysis relating to human rights, identifying relevant issues and reaching reasoned conclusions in relation to questions posed.
- Critically evaluate the relevant rights and issues arising from a case based scenario and come to a reasoned conclusion in relation to questions posed.
Ian is a famous footballer whose team is in the top league of English football. He is married to Dani who is a model and reality TV star. They have been married for 3 years and have twins, Theo and Alice, aged 18 months. They live in North London in a large luxury property.
Both Ian and Dani regularly appear in newspapers and magazines. Their marriage and the birth of their twins were particularly featured in the press and they have always been portrayed as being very happy together. They are the face of many branded products and also have their own fragrance range.
Ian’s football club won the league trophy and Ian and his teammates went out that night into central London to celebrate at various bars and nightclubs. All of the players had been drinking heavily and towards the end of the night they went into Winners nightclub. Inside the club there were a number of young female fans who began to take ‘selfies’ with the footballers and videos on their smartphones.
The next day Ian and Dani went away on holiday to Barbados for two weeks with the twins. Whilst they were away Dani regularly sunbathed topless on the beach during the day and took the twins for walk in their pushchairs in the nearby park. Throughout the holiday, the couple and the twins were mobbed by fans that recognised them and wanted to take pictures of them and the children.
The constant attention of fans spoilt the holiday for the couple who decide to come home a few days early. They returned home to find pictures in the Sunday Gazette newspaper of Dani sunbathing topless and close up photos of the twins in their pushchairs in the park. Whilst they had been away, a girl called Aimee had sold her story to the Sunday Gazette, claiming that she had been having an affair with Ian for several months. The newspaper article featured photos of them together in Winners nightclub. Ian told Dani that it was all lies and that Aimee was just a fan who he had met on the night out.
The pictures of Dani and Ian had spread across the internet and were on the Sunday Gazette’s website. There were also leaked financial details of the couple’s contract with the company who produces their fragrance range, both printed in the newspaper and on the newspaper’s website.
Advise Ian and Dani as to whether they are able to take the case to court against the Sunday Gazette under the Human Rights Act 1998 and if so, what the basis of their potential claim will be. Further advise them as to their prospects of success of such a claim against the newspaper, what possible remedies might be available and whether they can force the newspaper to remove the story and photos from its website.
You are not required to advise Ian and Dani regarding defamation or any potential claims in tort.
