Lawyers had cited the Human Rights Act

The case arose when Dunfermline woman Margaret Brown was questioned on 3 June 1999 by police who suspected she had been driving her car while over the drink drive limit.

Under 172(2)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, she was obliged to tell them whether she was the registered keeper of the vehicle.

However, she appealed and argued that the case should not go ahead because the obligation to disclose such information infinged the European Convention on Human Rights which has now been incorporated into Scots law in the Human Rights Act.

The convention seeks to uphold the right to silence and a right against self-incrimination.

Scotland's most senior judge, Lord Rodger, the Lord Justice General, agreed that a case could be prepared and brought before five law lords in the Privy Council.

In their ruling the law lords - three of them Scots judges - said the interests of the community at large had to be balanced against those of an individual and there had been no breach of human rights.

Lord Bingham, of Cornhill said: "On the whole matter I have reached the conclusion, having regard to the very limited nature of the information which the respondent was required to provide under section 172(2)(a), balanced against the legitimate aim sought to be achieved in the general interests of the community, that the test of proportionality has been passed and that evidence of the respondent's admission can be led in evidence at her forthcoming trial without infringing any of her Convention rights under Article 6."