Norris v. Ireland

Norris v. Ireland

Decided 26 October 1988
Full case name David Norris v. Ireland
Case number 6/1987/129/180
Nationality of parties Irish
Court composition
President
R. Ryssdal
Judges
J. Cremona · Thór Vilhjálmsson · F. Gölcüklü · F. Matscher · L.-E. Pettiti · Brian Walsh (judge) · Vincent Evans · C. Russo · R. Bernhardt · A. Spielmann · Jan de Meyer · J.A. Carrillo Salcedo · N. Valticos
Legislation affecting

Norris v. Ireland was a case decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 1988, in which David Norris successfully charged that Republic of Ireland's criminalisation of certain homosexual acts between consenting adult men was in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to respect for private and family life).

Original case

The original case in the Irish courts was Norris v. Attorney General, introduced in 1977 and decided by the Supreme Court of Ireland in 1983. Norris's Senior Counsel was fellow member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, Mary Robinson, who in 1990 would become the first female President of Ireland. The Irish courts ruled that Norris's right to privacy was not violated by the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (criminalising "buggery") and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 (criminalising "gross indecency").

Case before the ECtHR

Norris appealed the Irish court's decision to the ECtHR in 1983. The Court passed judgment in 1988, deciding in Norris's favour on grounds similar to those of its 1981 decision in Dudgeon v United Kingdom.

The laws impugned by the judgment were eventually repealed by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993.[1][2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Private Members' Business. - Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, 1993: Second Stage.". Dáil Éireann debates. Oireachtas. 23 June 1993. Retrieved 9 July 2012. it is the case that the main sections of the Bill arise against a background of the European Court decision in the Norris case
  2. ↑ Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993 Irish Statute Book
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