R v Secretary of State for Health ex p Eastside Cheese Co (1999) 55 BMLR 38; [1999] 3 CMLR 12

The rights set out in this provision are potentially very important in the context of environmental law, where legal regulation is often directed at controlling the way property, including land, is used.50 In practice, however, the ability of public authorities to take action which affects property in the general public interest operates as a considerable limitation on the use of this Article by claimants and a breach of the Article will only be found in exceptional circumstances. In this context it may be noted that the ‘public interest’ may include environmental protection. The revocation of a permit to extract gravel in the interests of nature conservancy, for example, was held to constitute a justified interference with property in Fredin v Sweden (1990) 13 EHRR 784.