Article 2 ECHR

AQA a level law 3B human rights law

What are the 3 justified restrictions under Article 2.2?

2.2(a) - in defence of any person from unlawful violence

2.2(b) - in order to effect an arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained

2.2(c ) - in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection

Is article 2 an absolute or qualified right? and what does this mean?

absolute right - cannot be limited under any circumstance in peace time, but is subject to justified restrictions set out in Article 2.2

Has the UK signed Protocol 13 and what does this mean?

Yes, abolishing capital punishment

Case concerning the beginning of life an unborn child

Vo v France - when life begins is decided at a national level within the margin of appreciation due to the lack of European consensus

Abortion laws UK?

Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks under the Abortion Act 1967, with no time limit if the woman’s life is at risk

Does assisted suicide come under the margin of appreciation?

Yes

The main case on assisted suicide

Pretty v UK (2001) - right to life under Article 2 does not create a right to choose death

Main case on the withdrawal of medical treatment

Bland - where there is no prospect of recovery, there is no duty to treat

Case on hospitals overriding parent’s wishes

Gard v UK - hospitals have the power to override a parent’s wishes on life support by a court order

Case on withdrawing support without a court order if family agrees

An NHS Trust v Y - hospital can withdraw assisted nutrition hydration without a court order where the family agree

Case on refusal of medical treatment

Ms B v NHS hospital trust

Case to do with real and immediate risk

Osman v UK - state authorities must take measures to protect individuals whose lives are at risk from other individuals where it is clear there is a ‘real and immediate risk’ to life

Case on positive duty on state to protect individuals from others (prison)

Edwards v UK

case on Local authorities protect individuals

Mitchell v Glasgow City Corporation, local authorities may have to take steps to keep their residents safe from violent neighbours

Case on states duty to prevent suicide - prison

Keenan v UK

Case on state’s duty to prevent a suicide - hospitals

Savage v NHS Trust

case - duty on the state to provide protection against medical malpractice

Erikson v Italy - obligation to establish an effective judicial system for establishing the cause of death which occurs in a hospital

The duty on the state in relation to life-threatening environmental risks

Oneryildiz v Turkey - knew/ought to know a rubbish tip could lead to an explosion of methane and pose a real and immediate risk to the life of those living in the nearby slums.

Duty on the state to hold an investigation into an unnatural death

Jordan v UK - applicant’s son killed by police. ECHR criteria for proof of an effective investigation: sufficient public scrutiny of the investigation/its results to secure accountability, and the next of kin must be involved in the investigation

What case confirmed there was a procedural obligation under article 2, and to do what? (investigation into an unnatural death)

Amin v SOS - procedural obligation to ensure as far as possible that the full facts are brought to light and the culpable conduct is exposed and brought to the publics notice

what case established the guidance for ‘Guidance to Coroners 2016’

Tainton v Preston Coroner - checklist of questions that a coroner, sitting in the Coroner’s Court with a jury should consider

What deals with the investigations of deaths attributable to police officers and other agents of the state, often alongside the Coroner’s inquest?

Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

State the rules (?) of the McCann Test

• the state must ensure that the police and security services that are faced with situations where use of lethal force may be used must be appropriately trained and instructed

• the lethal force used by state agents in self-defence or in the defence of others must be based on ‘an honest belief, which is perceived, for good reasons, to be valid at the time, even if it subsequently turns out to be mistaken’.

Rules from Finogenov v Russia, Article 2 may be violated where there is:

• lack of careful planning of the police rescue operation which can suggest the use of lethal force was not absolutely necessary

• lack of an effective investigation by the state to determine if the use of lethal force was absolutely necessary

Case example of lethal force not being absolutely necessary:

Matzarakis v Greece

Leading case on police using force to defend members of the public from an act of terrorism

Armani Da Silva v UK

what did the court decide in Nachova v Bulgaria?

the legitimate aim of carrying out a lawful arrest can only justify putting human life at risk in circumstances of absolute necessity. There is no necessity where the person being arrested poses no threat to life nor is suspected of having committed a violent offence.

law to do with using force to prevent crime/effect arrest

s.3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 states ‘a person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting the lawful arrest of offenders or of persons unlawfully at large’.

What lays down police codes of practice which must be observed in relation to the use of reasonable force?

the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

Use of lethal force absolutely necessary in protest case

Stewart v UK

Use of lethal force not absolutely necessary case (protest)

Gulec v Turkey

what does Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v DSD establish?

establishing that police owe an operational duty to conduct effective investigations into serious violent crime