Terror in the UK
For those of you familiar with the law review world, you know that the journals pick up the hot topics of the day. When I was a former law review editor but a mere three and a half years ago, I must have reviewed dozens of articles on the then hot topics – Bush v. Gore, Napster, the debate over China’s accession to the WTO, the SCOTUS boy scout’s homosexuality discrimination case, etc. A few years ago while doing research on European human rights law, I picked up on a neglected area of research – the European Convention on Human Rights – and specifically how it relates to the UK’s human rights law in regards to actions taken against terrorists, real and alleged, with cases like McCann and Others vs the UK, Brogan and Others vs the UK, and others, focusing mainly on the UK’s war against the IRA.
Earlier this year, I co-wrote a short case brief with some very motivated UNL students on the Al-Skeini decision, involving the alleged detention and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Basra by UK soldiers, in which the High Court of England and Wales ruled early this year against the UK for violations of the European Convention, which the UK has adopted almost wholesale into its domestic law. Our article focuses on the extraterritorial reach of the ECHR and how it applies specifically to the UK in light of its intervention in Iraq and membership in the Council of Europe. In the article I analyzed other key ECHR extraterritoriality cases and how they related to Al-Skeini, specifically the Cyprus cases (Turkish military occupation of Northern Cyprus), the Bankovic case (NATO intervention in Yugoslavia) and the Ocalan case (Turkish abduction of a Kurdish leader in Kenya’s internatio
nal airport).
Following the G-8 transit system bombings earlier this month, I have since been contacted again by journals asking me about this piece’s availability – which is no longer available since I accepted publication from another journal this spring. It is a sad commentary how the recent tragic events in the UK have spurred interest in this important facet of international law. In anycase, I am currently looking for advice/insight on updating my article before it goes to printing this fall. Comments are welcome on policy and law recommendations and predictions, as well as general discussion on this topic.
The Comments
Steve July 19, 2005 at 2:42pm
Sounds very interesting Mr. T. I can’t add much since this is an area of which I am ignorant. I did find the recent S.D.NY decision in First Presbyterian Church of Sudan, allowing for lawsuits for violations of jus cogens under the Alien Tort Statute against private corporations, interesting for some of the same reasons you mention above.
marten zwanenburg May 4, 2006 at 4:07am
If I am not mistaken you posted a message not too long ago referring to cases that were coming up at the European Court of Human Rights involving KFOR.
I am very interested in the issue of extraterritorial application of human rights in general, and concerning peace operations in particular.
Would you by any chance have more information on the cases concerned such as application numbers, names of applicants, etc?
Yours,
Marten Zwanenburg
The Hague, the Netherlands
Mr. T May 4, 2006 at 6:14pm
Marten - The main case I was thinking of was Behrami v. France, no. 71412/01. This one has yet to go through the Court. It involves death caused by unexploded ordinance in French controlled areas of the KFOR mission. There may be some interesting wrinkles related to acts or omissions done in the capacity of a multinational force (i.e. KFOR) that weren’t addressed in Bankovic. Like you, I am waiting for a decision on this one to come out. Good luck!
marten zwanenburg May 5, 2006 at 5:40am
Mr. T,
Thank you for the reference. Another case I found that is interesting is Saramati v. France, Germany and Norway. As far as I am aware this one also still has to go before the court.
Mr. T August 13, 2006 at 3:00pm
Marten - Although you probably heard already, I just wanted to let you know that it was recently announced that both the Behrami and Saramati cases are headed for a Grand Chamber decision before the European Court on November 15.