European Court of Human Rights: review of the judgment of 22 February 2018 (Fifth Section) in the case of Libert v. France (application no. 588/13)

The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Libert v. France concerns the dismissal of a French national railway company’s employee after the seizure of his work computer revealed a significant number of forged certificates and pornographic files. The European Court held that the railway company – a public-law entity supervised by the state – was a “public authority” within the meaning of Article 8 of the Convention. Even though employer has a legitimate interest in ensuring that its staff discharge their professional duties, such control must be accompanied by adequate guarantees against abuse. The European Court found that the necessary guarantees were present in the applicant’s case, as under French law an employer can open the private files of its employees only in exceptional cases, and the applicant’s computer files were not properly labelled by him as private.

Citation: (2018) Evropeyskiy Sud po pravam cheloveka: obzor postanovleniya ot 22 fevralya 2018 goda (Sektsiya V) po delu Libert (Libert) protiv Frantsii (zhaloba no.588/13) [European Court of Human Rights: review of the judgment of 22 February 2018 (Fifth Section) in the case of Libert v. France (application no.588/13)]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol.8, no.2, pp.8–10. (In Russian).