The right to private life, family life, and the home

Early attempts to utilise the right focused on the problem of noise nuisance, usually from airports. In Rayner,162 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) accepted the argument that Art 8 was not restricted to direct incursions by the State into the sanctity of the home. It also covered ‘indirect incursions which are unavoidable consequences of measures not at all directed against private individuals’. Article 8(2) requires the Court to balance the equities by weighing the loss to the applicant against the economic utility of the enterprise. The plane movements at Heathrow airport were judged to be necessary in a democratic society for the economic well being of the country.