''Laskey, Jaggard and Brown v. United Kingdom'' is a case that was argued before the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

, which ruled in February 1997, that no violation of

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic ...

occurred.

Facts

During an investigation led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

, several video tapes of

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

sado-masochistic Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...

sexual encounters were obtained by the police. These encounters involved the applicants and possibly as many as forty-four other men. On the basis of their violent sadomasochistic actions, the men were convicted for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. In '' R v. Brown'', the House of Lords upheld their judgement, finding that consent was not a defence to their actions in these circumstances. The applicants believed that a violation of

Article 8 Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "privacy, private and family life, his home and his privacy of correspondence, correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with l ...

had occurred because the activities were consensual, conducted in a private setting, and none of the participants required medical attention.

Judgment

The

unanimously ruled that no violation of

occurred because the amount of physical or psychological harm that the law allows between any two people, even consenting adults, is to be determined by the

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

the individuals live in, as it is the State's responsibility to balance the concerns of

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

and well-being with the amount of control a State should be allowed to exercise over its citizens. More specifically, the Court ruled that the reasons that the police gave for confiscating the tapes were valid, and that the action was justified granted the number of charges that were brought against the applicants. The ruling also questioned whether or not the tapes could be considered part of the applicants' private lives, because so many people were involved in the footage, as well as because the applicants made and distributed the recordings in the first place. The

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

stressed that the ruling in ''Laskey, Jaggard and Brown v. United Kingdom'' should be seen as distinct from that in ''

Dudgeon v. United Kingdom ''Dudgeon v the United Kingdom'' (1981) was a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case, which held that Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which criminalised male homosexual acts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland violate ...

'', an earlier, similar case relating to sexual behavior between consenting adults.

Related case

*
K. A. and A. D. v. Belgium
' (17.2.2005, applications 42758/98 and 45558/99) *

' 21.7.2000

References

Text of judgment from World Legal Information Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laskey, Jaggard And Brown V United Kingdom BDSM Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving the United Kingdom 1997 in British law 1997 in LGBT history 1997 in case law United Kingdom LGBT rights case law

Facts

Judgment

Related case

See also

References