CPL Seminar: 'The significance of certainty in supranational human rights adjudication'Coercive overreach, dilution, uncertainty: potential pitfalls of requiring recourse to the criminal law through human rights

Speaker: Dr Natasa Mavronicola, University of Birmingham

In this paper, I consider the coercive 'sting' of positive duties in the European Court of Human Rights' doctrine, with particular focus on duties to criminalise, prosecute and punish under Article 2 and Article
3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The paper critically analyses the potential, within this doctrine, of both coercive overreach and dilution of the human rights standards at play, and contemplates what the coercive edge of positive obligations entails for the significance of certainty in Strasbourg doctrine. It concludes by advocating for a protective re-orientation in the way Convention rights are interpreted and applied.

This seminar is open to all LLM, MCL and PhD students, Faculty members and Faculty visitors.