Abstract:
This chapter considers the possible impact of the European Convention on Human
Rights Act 2003 (ECHR Act) on Irish law in selected areas of land and property,
planning, housing and environment law1 - areas associated with enormous recent
wealth gain. The existing Irish constitutional provisions balancing the common good
and private property rights, within the doctrine of proportionality and system of
compensation, broadly reflect European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
jurisprudence, although the widening Strasbourg definition of possessions may reveal
limitations on the rights contained in the 1937 document. Articles 3 and 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with their positive obligations on
the state to act, create a new scenario, where recent judicial review cases are
elaborating the nature and extent of the obligations involved. Planning and
environmental law must also attune to the requirements for fair procedures arising
from Articles 6 and 13 ECHR, while environmental impacts on homes must be
harmonious with Article 8 precedents. Non-discrimination in the implementation of
the growing corpus of ECHR legal rights could form significant legal argument in the
areas of land, property, housing and environmental law.
