Buckland v United Kingdom (App. No. 40060/08) [2012] ECHR 40060/08, [2012] All ER (D) 141 (Sep)
European Court of Human Rights, Judges Lech Garlicki, President, Nicolas Bratza, Päivi Hirvelä, George Nicolaou, Ledi Bianku, Nebojša Vucinic, Vincent, De Gaetano, 18 Sep 2012
The inability of a gypsy to challenge the decision to seek a possession order on the basis of the alleged disproportionality of that decision in light of personal circumstances was in breach of Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention), though subsequent legislative changes remedy the breach.
The applicant was a gypsy. A claim for possession was issued against her and her family in August 2005. At first instance, the judge considered whether the applicant could challenge the making of a possession order. He concluded that he was bound by previous authority (including Kay v United Kingdom (App No 37341/06)) to find that the only possible challenges to the making of the order were to the law itself or on conventional judicial review grounds. However, he considered the applicant’s personal circumstances
