Abstract
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is entitled "Right to respect for private and family life". The aim of this paper is to respond to the question in the heading of the manuscript.
Analysis of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights shows that the answer to this question is positive and negative at the same time. There is no judgment of the European Court finding a violation of the right to family or private life of legal persons.
This has allowed the national governments to argue, in a number of cases originated from the applications lodged by legal entities, that Article 8 of the European Convention is not applicable. On the other hand, there are a few judgments in which the Court ruled that other aspects of this Article had been breached in respect of legal entities.
The European Court noted that legal persons are not wholly deprived of the protection of Article 8: for instance, they may invoke a violation of the right to "home" (which may include business premises) and correspondence covered by it. Though there is a limited number of judgments in relation to legal entities under Article 8 and most of them were rendered after the millennium; however, in view of the principle that the Convention is a "living instrument", it is possible to expect further development of the rights in issue.