Dudgeon v. United Kingdom
European Court of Human Rights
Application No. 7525/76 (1981)
- Written by Miller Jozwiak, JD
Facts
Jeffrey Dudgeon (plaintiff) was a gay man who lived in Northern Ireland (defendant). Officials executed a search at Dudgeon’s address in an unrelated case. During the search, the officials discovered personal papers of Dudgeon describing his sexual activity. The discovery led to a referral to the relevant prosecuting authority. Northern Ireland law criminalized various forms of homosexual conduct, even among consenting men over the age of 21 (although homosexual activity among women was not criminalized). The prosecuting authority considered the materials and ultimately determined that it would not bring a case against Dudgeon. Indeed, in the years preceding this case, Northern Ireland had refrained from enforcing the law as applied to consenting men over the age of 21, and many other European countries no longer criminalized homosexual activity. But the Northern Ireland government later claimed that the laws were necessary because of religious and cultural factors unique to Northern Ireland. There was no evidence that the lax enforcement had been injurious to moral standings in Northern Ireland or that there had been public outrage. Dudgeon brought a complaint, challenging the laws criminalizing homosexual activity among consenting adults as violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning ()
Dissent (Zekia, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 899,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,000 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
