Privacy under the spotlight at Northumbria Legal Conference

Top legal experts gathered at Northumbria Law School to discuss this timely area of law during the Fourth Northumbria Information Rights Conference: Privacy, Openness and Accountability.

Keynote speaker at the conference was John Wadham, Group Legal Director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  He presented a paper entitled, 'Privacy: the weakest right and what can be done'.

John Wadham is known for his outspoken work and campaigning for civil liberties.  He has acted for clients (including David Shayler, the MI5 agent) in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasberg.

Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, addressed the conference on the topic: 'Who's who?  Issues of identity and freedom of information'.  He considered whether recent judicial opinion raises the prospect of information being withheld on the basis of who is requesting it and whether the capacity to disclose statistics may be constrained by the extent to which personal information can ever be said to the truly anonymised.  Conference contributors also included Sarah M. Butcher, of the University of Otago, New Zealand; David Erdos, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Balliol College, Oxford; Dr Lawrence McNamara, Reader in Law and ESRC/AHRC Research Fellow, University of Reading; Dr Tony Ward, Reader in Law, University of Hull; Ibrahim Hasan, Solicitor, Director of Act Now Training Ltd; and Professor Tim Pitt-Payne QC, 11 Kings Bench Walk.

During the sessions, delegates examined a range of questions including: Should information be revealed to the world at large because it interests the public or because it is of public interest and who decides the difference?  How should society balance the need to promote good governance, accountability and transparency with the need to protect personal privacy?  And, how do we value privacy? 

Principal Lecturer, Claire Bessant organised the conference with fellow Law School academics Susan Wolf, Helen Morris and Andrew Watson, all founder members of Northumbria's Centre for Information Rights Law and Practice.  She said: 'Today provided an excellent opportunity for academics and practitioners across legal and information rights disciplines to meet to discuss the fundamental and topical issues of privacy and openness.  We were delighted to be able to welcome delegates from throughout the United Kingdom and from overseas.  The range of topics covered by the speakers clearly illustrated the tensions between privacy and openness and the extent to which the law is able to resolve these conflicts.