Chief Constable Of Yorkshire V. A And Other (2004)

The applicant suffered from a condition known as gender dysphoria. She wanted to obtain a corrected copy of her birth certificate from the Registrar General. This would involve changing columns three and four; name from Donal Foy to Lydia Annice and sex from male to female. However when this was rejected she took an action in the High Court (9th July 2002). She argued that her rights were breached under the constitution and under the European Convention on Human Rights. Unfortunately her claims were rejected and she appealed to the Supreme Court on the 30th July 2002. In 2005 there were some changes in the law which enabled the Supreme Court to remit the case back to the High Court which could now hear her new issues. In her appeal (April 2007)

This referred to a male to female transsexual who experienced harassment in the work place and was having difficulties under Data Protection. Up until 2003, Ireland had a duellist approach which meant that the Goodwin case was not enforceable in Ireland as the ECHR Act 2003 had not been passed. Likewise in the case of Chief Constable of Yorkshire v.A and Another (No.2) [2004] UKHL 21, [2005] 1 A.C S1, a transsexual brought a case against the Yorkshire police as they refused to acknowledge her as a female member of staff. The court wasn’t sure whether to adapt Goodwin. Lord Bingham recognised the identity of transsexuals however he deemed the case to be used for prospective purposes as a rule of precedent. Overall McKechnie J found that Goodwin had no real effect on this case in 2002 as at the time of the case Goodwin had not reached the ECHR, the court still hadn’t recognised a breach of transsexual’s rights also it was still up to the country in deciding their interpretation of “sex” in relation to birth and

The Act 2003 was now binding in Ireland. He noted that it was not the convention itself that was part of Irish law it was the rights under the Act 2003. At the time of the applicant’s case England’s legal system was more or less the same of that of Ireland. Soon after the Goodwin case the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was passed in England. McKechnie J believed that Ireland should adopted a similar approach. He deemed Ireland’s refusal to do so as a breach of article 8 for the applicant however due to the applicant’s marital status she had no action under article