Stott (Procurator Fiscal, Dunfermline) and Another v Brown: PC 5 Dec 2000

The system under which the registered keeper of a vehicle was obliged to identify herself as the driver, and such admission was to be used subsequently as evidence against her on a charge of driving with excess alcohol, was not a breach of her right to a fair trial. The right not to give evidence against oneself was not an explicit, nor absolute right, and was subject to qualification. A balance was to be found between the right to a fair trial, and the need to respond to a serious problem in society: ‘while the overall fairness of a criminal trial cannot be compromised, the constituent rights comprised, whether expressly or implicitly, within article 6 are not themselves absolute. Limited qualification of these rights is acceptable if reasonably directed by national authorities towards a clear and proper public objective and if representing no greater qualification than the situation calls for.’ The response was not disproportionate. An issue as to conformity with human rights law is a devolution issue under the Scotland Act. ‘The [European] court has also recognised the need for a fair balance between the general interest of the community and the personal rights of the individual, the search for which balance has been described as inherent in the whole of the Convention.’
Lord Clyde said that it must be remembered that the Convention: ‘is dealing with the realities of life and it is not to be applied in ways which run counter to reason and common sense.’
Lord Bingham of Cornhill said: ‘The high incidence of death and injury on the roads caused by the misuse of motor vehicles is a very serious problem common to almost all developed societies. The need to address it in an effective way, for the benefit of the public, cannot be doubted. Among other ways in which democratic governments have sought to address it is by subjecting the use of motor vehicles to a regime of regulation and making provision for enforcement by identifying, prosecuting and punishing offending drivers. Materials laid before the Board, incomplete though they are, reveal different responses to the problem of enforcement. Under some legal systems (Spain, Belgium and France are examples) the registered owner of a vehicle is assumed to be the driver guilty of minor traffic infractions unless he shows that some other person was driving at the relevant time or establishes some other ground of exoneration. There being a clear public interest in enforcement of road traffic legislation the crucial question in the present case is whether section 172 represents a disproportionate response, or one that undermines a defendant’s right to a fair trial, if an admission of being the driver is relied on at trial.’
. . and ‘Judicial recognition and assertion of the human rights defined in the Convention is not a substitute for the processes of democratic government but a complement to them. While a national court does not accord the margin of appreciation recognised by the European court as a supra-national court, it will give weight to the decisions of a representative legislature and a democratic government within the discretionary area of judgment accorded to those bodies.’

Bingham, Hope, Steyn, Clyde, Kirkwood LL
Times 06-Dec-2000, [2001] 2 WLR 817, [2003] 1 AC 681, [2001] 2 All ER 97, [2000] UKPC D 3, 2000 GWD 40-151, 11 BHRC 179, 2001 SLT 59, 2001 SC (PC) 43, (2001) 3 LGLR 24, [2001] RTR 121, [2001] UKHRR 333, [2001] HRLR 9, 2001 SCCR 62
PC, Bailii
Road Traffic Act 1988 172, Scotland Act 1998, European Convention on Human Rights
Scotland
Citing:
CitedSporrong and Lonnroth v Sweden ECHR 18-Dec-1984
Balance of Interests in peaceful enjoyment claim
An interference with the peaceful enjoyment of possessions must strike a fair balance between the demands of the general interests of the community and the requirements of the protection of the individual’s fundamental rights. This balance is . .
CitedSheffield and Horsham v The United Kingdom ECHR 30-Jul-1998
It is within a nation’s margin of appreciation to refuse to re-register birth details of people who had undergone sex-changes. Similarly it was not a human rights infringement not to allow post operative trans-sexuals to marry. However the court was . .

Cited by:
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cplc_pChD2006
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CitedHer Majesty’s Advocate v P SC 6-Oct-2011
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Held: The admission of the . .
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CitedRegina v Kansal (2) HL 29-Nov-2001
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The decision in Lambert to disallow retrospective . .
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Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Road Traffic, Human Rights

Leading Case

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.163268