This article refers to the British Human Rights Act. Horizontal effect should not be confused with Direct effect and indirect effect which are terms concerning the European Union or indeed vertical direct effect and horizontal direct effect which are variants of the Direct effect principle.
In British law the term horizontal effect refers to how the Human Rights Act affects litigation between private individuals even though it was primarily intended to deal with disputes involving a public body.
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It has been argued that the Human Rights Act 1998 has not created rights which can be directly relied on between private parties (Direct Horizontal Effect) but has instead created a right, to privacy for example, by requiring courts to have regard to Convention rights through s. 6 of the 1998 Act. Some commentators [1] therefore argue that the Act is horizontally effective. Baroness Hale in Campbell v MGN [2] stated "The 1998 Act does not create any new cause of action between private persons. But if there is a relevant cause of action applicable, the court as a public authority must act compatibly with both parties' Convention rights.”