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So, there are dormitory regulations and country laws. In the first rules, nothing told about privacy. But according to country law, there is. For example: "Dormitory assistant has the right to enter students room without their permission."

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"Every person shall have the right to demand that his private and family life is respected. There shall be no violation of the individual's private and family life."

Dormitory located inside the country of course, so the question here is: Which one here is right? Constitution or dormitory regulations?

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  • Could you give us a jurisdiction? And is the school state funded or take money grants from the state?
    – hszmv
    Jan 8, 2021 at 12:42
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    It's about dormitory for students. No education is intended. Institution and dormitory are separate.
    – Temirlan Tauzhanov
    Jan 8, 2021 at 12:56
  • Does the college own the dorm building? And funding does matter for the answer.
    – hszmv
    Jan 8, 2021 at 13:14
  • The dormitory is independent of the college. Students are the funding as long as they stay there.
    – Temirlan Tauzhanov
    Jan 8, 2021 at 13:21
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    Thew question mentions "country laws". Which country? The way in which national laws affect local or private institutions varies widely from one country to another. If the country is a federal one , which province or state, as that may also change things?
    – David Siegel
    Jan 8, 2021 at 15:47

2 Answers 2

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Dormitory regulations such as "Dormitory assistant has the right to enter students room without their permission." form part of the policy of the dormitory or whatever entity controls it. Students probably agree, in a contract, to accept and abide by such rules.

What the question calls "country laws" such as "Every person shall have the right to demand that his private and family life is respected. There shall be no violation of the individual's private and family life." probably restrict the action of police and other government agencies. They may or may not also apply to some degree to non-government actors. Thus knowing whether the dormitory is in some way government-run is likely to be important to a good answer.

It may well be that by moving in to the dormitory and accepting its rules, the student has agreed to an exception to national laws about privacy. It is possible that the laws do not permit such an exception, and the corm rule are not legally valid. Without knowing the country at least, one cannot say.

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  • In Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights has no exceptions for non-state actors. Privacy is covered by article 8. The only exceptions are for public authorities.
    – MSalters
    Jan 9, 2021 at 2:02
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Article 23 para 1 continues with the sentence "The exceptions necessitated by legal proceedings shall be reserved". However, Art 25 is specifically directed at dwelling searches, and has more explicit provisions regarding court orders. An unanswered question is how the scope of the state's constitution is determined. Typically, a constitution only limits the power of the state, so if this is a government university that a constitutional-infringement argument would carry more weight. Legislation may have been passed which explicitly incorporates this article against private interests, but we don't and apparently cannot determine from here if that has happened. Art. 12 expression an obligation for the state to act to recognize and protect Part II rights, but a plausible legal answer by the government is "We're discussing that: wait until there is a law".

If we change jurisdiction to the US, the US Constitution protects against unreasonable search, but that applies to searches by the government, and not by parents or employers, for example. However, each state has enacted laws that would require permission of the person in authority, in the case of tenants and landlords. There is no 50-state answer to the question of whether dormitory-owners can reserve the right to search without permission: it may be in the dormitory contract. Indeed, I don't think that any state in the US grants a minor immunity from parental search of the parent's property occupied by the minor.

Appeal to EU law will not help, since North Cyprus and its constitution are not recognized by the EU.

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