Northern Ireland’s High Court of Justice has ruled that police retention of a 14 year old boy’s DNA was not illegal, despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the blanket data retention policy conflicts with human rights law.
The Court said that it could not follow the ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because an earlier ruling by the House of Lords conflicted with it. Mr Justice McLoskey said in the ruling that this verdict was necessary even though it was the Northern Irish Court’s view that the retention was in conflict with human rights law.
“By virtue of the doctrine of precedent, it is incumbent on this court to give effect to the decision of the House of Lords … with the result that the first limb of [the boy’s] challenge cannot succeed,” said the ruling.
Read more on Out-Law.com. If you’re as puzzled as I was reading the above, it seems that the ECHR ruling is not binding.