CPL Lunchtime seminar: 'The Limits of Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights'

Speaker: Vladislava Stoyanova

The Centre for Public Law will host a series of 'current developments' and 'research in progress' seminars in Easter term. The seminars will be organised on a hybrid basis, both in-person in the Moot Court Room and online.

Abstract: It is beyond question that States have positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent and address harm and risks of harm. However, given the difficulties of determining and delimiting the role of the State, the conditions under which positive obligations may apply can be unclear. The search for balance between intrusion and restraint by the State—between protection and freedom from interference—further complicates the question of state responsibility for breach of positive obligations. I have tried to understand and address these challenges in Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights - Vladislava Stoyanova - Oxford University Press (oup.com) (available open access on the OUP website). By systematising the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the book provides key insights into the elements crucial for ascertaining state responsibility for omissions - state knowledge, causation, and reasonableness. It outlines different kinds of positive human rights obligations and identifies the circumstances under which they can be breached.

About the Speaker: Dr Vladislava Stoyanova is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, Lund University. She is the holder of the Wallenberg Academy Fellowship (2019-2024) awarded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, leading the project ‘The Borders Within: The Multifaceted Legal Landscape of Migrant Integration in Europe'. She is the holder of the 2023 Henrik Enderlein Prize for research excellence in social sciences. Her publications include the monographs Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: Within and Beyond Boundaries (Oxford University Press, 2023), Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered: Conceptual Limits and States’ Positive Obligations in European Law (Cambridge University Press 2017), and four co-edited volumes Seeking Asylum in the European Union: Selected Protection Issues Raised by the Second Phase of the Common European Asylum System (Brill 2015), The New Asylum and Transit Countries in Europe: During and in the Aftermath of the 2015–2016 Crisis (Brill 2018), International Law and Violence against Women: Europe and the Istanbul Convention (Routledge 2020) and Migrants’ Rights, Populism and Legal Resilience in Europe (Cambridge University Press 2022). Her research interests generally relate to public international law, human rights law, migration law and EU law.

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