ABSTRACT

A peculiarity of the context in which English law has come to give human rights protection in the private sphere is the absence in the United Kingdom of a written constitution – a peculiarity shared with New Zealand and Israel only (the subjects of Chapters 10 and 8 respectively). In one sense, then, there is no ‘constitutional’ background to the protection of human rights in the private sphere in England. England’s1 is a legal system in which areas where Parliament has not occupied the field (and where European Community law does not apply), including much of the private sphere, are regulated – or not regulated – by the common law and equity. At least in the private sphere everyone enjoys freedom to do as they will unless there is a positive law to the contrary.