Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom
- Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom
"Dudgeon v. United Kingdom" was a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case, similar to the U.S. cases of "Bowers v. Hardwick "and" Lawrence v. Texas."
Jeffrey Dudgeon was a shipping clerk and gay activist in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when he was interrogated by the Royal Ulster Constabulary about his sexual activities. He filed a complaint with the European Commission of Human Rights, which declared his complaint admissible to the European Court of Human Rights. On 22 October 1981, the Court agreed with the commission that Northern Ireland's criminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults was a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the ruling continued, "it was for countries to fix for themselves...any appropriate extension of the age of consent in relation to such conduct."
As a consequence, male homosexual sex was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 1982. (Female homosexual behaviour was never criminal anywhere in the United Kingdom.) Male homosexual behaviour was previously decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, and in Scotland in 1980. It remained illegal in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, however - ironically, under the same nineteenth century British law struck down by the ECHR in Northern Ireland - until 1995, following the ECHR decision in "Norris v. Ireland" (1993), for which "Dudgeon" was the keystone precedent.
"Dudgeon v. United Kingdom" was cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in his opinion in the aforementioned "Lawrence" decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
ee also
*right to privacy
*Laskey, Jaggard and Brown v. United Kingdom
*1981 in LGBT rights
External links
*cite web
title=Full text of "Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom" (1981)
publisher=European Court of Human Rights HUDOC Portal
url=http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=695350&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649
accessdate=2008-03-27
*cite journal
author=Micheal T McLoughlin MA
title=Crystal or Glass?: A Review of "Dudgeon v. United Kingdom" on the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Decision
journal=eLaw Journal
volume=3
issue=4
publisher=Murdoch University
location=Murdoch
date=December 1996
url=http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v3n4/mclough.html
accessdate=2008-03-27
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