Law, Property, Housing and Environmental Law

This chapter considers the possible impact of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 (ECHR Act) on Irish law in selected areas of land and property, planning, housing and environment law1 - areas associated with enormous recent wealth gain. The existing Irish constitutional provisions balancing the common good and private property rights, within the doctrine of proportionality and system of compensation, broadly reflect European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) jurisprudence, although the widening Strasbourg definition of possessions may reveal limitations on the rights contained in the 1937 document. Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with their positive obligations on the state to act, create a new scenario, where recent judicial review cases are elaborating the nature and extent of the obligations involved. Planning and environmental law must also attune to the requirements for fair procedures arising from Articles 6 and 13 ECHR, while environmental impacts on homes must be harmonious with Article 8 precedents. Non-discrimination in the implementation of the growing corpus of ECHR legal rights could form significant legal argument in the areas of land, property, housing and environmental law.