Duchess of Argyll v Duke of Argyll [1967] ChD 302 is not the most important case in the world of breach of confidence or privacy, but neither should it be a mere footnote. It establishes for the first time that marital confidences can be protected by the law on breach of confidence, which nowadays would seem so obvious that it would hardly be worth stating but which, of course, has to be stated a first time by a judge before it could become obvious.
It might not be an important case, but it is surely the most-discussed confidentiality case in the country at the moment. The reason is that the BBC is showing a three-part dramatisation of the story, and even sixty years on it’s an extraordinary one. However, its interest lies in matters that can perhaps best be described as prurient, so I won’t go into them in more detail - there is more than enough commentary on the Internet if you feel the need to find out more. Although, having mentioned the headless man in the title of this posting, I should explain that it refers to a photograph showing the Duchess in a compromising situation with a man whose head was not in the photo but who was not her husband (he presented evidence in the form of certain measurements to establish that). I remember a long time ago there was much speculation that the headless man was a senior member of the government, but still no-one knows.
None of this raises the Argyll case to the level of Coco or Hello! as a must-read (or, let’s be realistic about what most students do, must-know) case in this area. It’s not even in my top ten confidentiality cases - the (approximately) ten cases every student needs to know, in each area of intellectual property law. But I do like to see the law intersecting with the real world - which IP law does like no other area of law.