JAMES AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT
31
The 80 enfranchisements complained of by the applicants remained
within the framework of the legislation, which framework the Court has
found to be compatible with the second sentence of Article 1 (P1-1). These
enfranchisements did not result in placing an excessive burden on the
applicants, over and above the disadvantageous effects generally inherent
for landlords in the application of the scheme set up under the leasehold
reform legislation. Accordingly, the requisite balance under Article 1 (P1-1)
was not destroyed.
4. Recapitulation
70. To sum up, each of the requirements of the second sentence was
therefore satisfied in relation to the contested deprivation of possessions
suffered by the applicants.
C. First sentence of the first paragraph ("the peaceful enjoyment
rule")
71. Alternatively and additionally, the applicants asserted a violation of
their rights of peaceful enjoyment of property as guaranteed by the first
sentence of Article 1 (P1-1).
The rule (in the second sentence) subjecting deprivation of possessions to
certain conditions concerns a particular category, indeed the most radical
kind, of interference with the right to peaceful enjoyment of property (see
paragraph 37 in fine above); the second sentence supplements and qualifies
the general principle enunciated in the first sentence. This being so, it is
inconceivable that application of that general principle to the present case
should lead to any conclusion different from that already arrived at by the
Court in application of the second sentence.
D. Conclusion
72. Neither by reason of the terms and conditions of the Leasehold
Reform Act 1967 as amended nor by reason of the particular circumstances
of the enfranchisement transactions concerning the applicants’ properties
has there been a breach of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (P1-1).
II. ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONVENTION TAKEN IN CONJUNCTION
WITH ARTICLE 1 OF PROTOCOL NO. 1 (art. 14+P1-1)
73. The applicants claimed that they had been the victims of
discrimination in the enjoyment of their right of property under Article 1 of
Protocol No. 1 (P1-1). They alleged breach of Article 14 (art. 14) of the
Convention, which provides: