Amicus Curiae - Data Protection
Digital Rights Ireland Limited v The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, The Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, Ireland and the Attorney General; Notice Party: Human Rights Commission (May, 2010)
In July 2008, the IHRC was granted liberty by the High Court to appear as amicus curiae in the case of Digital Rights Ireland Limited v. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, The Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, Ireland and the Attorney General; Notice Party: Human Rights Commission.
In May 2010 Mr Justice MacKechnie delivered Judgment on 3 related motions. The High Court first granted locus standi to the Plaintiffs, a nongovernmental organisation whose mission is stated to be to defend personal liberties in relation to data protection and which is a company limited by guarantee). In its submissions, the IHRC had urged this on the Court, believing as it did that in addition to the substantive issues in the case raising questions of significance from a human rights perspective, that the preliminary issue on the Plaintiff's standing in itself raised important questions of principle relating to the capacity of entities other than individuals to have access to the Courts for the purposes of defending or vindicating rights enjoyed by individuals or by those entities, which it addressed at the hearing.
Second, the Court refused the Defendant's motion for security for costs.
Third, the Court also agreed that a reference should be made to the Court of Justice on questions of interpretation of EU law and has now requested the parties to make submissions on the content and wording of the questions to be referred to the Court of Justice.
The case involves the retention of telecommunications data by service providers for access and use by State authorities for a period of up to three years. It also includes significantly includes challenges to both European Union law (Directive 2006/24/EC) and domestic law data retention mechanisms (including the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005) (under which provision An Garda Síochána can monitor mobile phone calls and internet communications). The core human rights principles at issue are the right to respect for private life and correspondence under Article 8 of the ECHR and the right to freedom of expression under Article 10.