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Classes 8 and 9:
The European Convention on Human Rights
Assignment
Read the supplemental materials on the European Convention on Human Rights and the Ireland v. United Kingdom case.
Questions
- Why did states agree to the European Convention? To its provisions
allowing individual petitions? To dispute-resolution by the Court of Human Rights?
- Are human rights treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights
based on a reciprocal exchange of promises, like the ABM Treaty?
Or do they represent a fundamentally different type of treaty?
- Which opinion did you find most persuasive in Ireland v. United Kingdom? The
opinions by Zekia and O'Donoghue that the five techniques used by the British constituted
"torture"? The opinion by Fitzmaurice that the five techniques did not constitue "inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment," let alone "torture"? Or the Solomonic opinion
of the majority that the five techniques did contitute "inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment," but not "torture"? Why should the United
Kingdom defer to the Court's judgment on this quesion? Is this an objective or subjective judgment?
- Why have states generally complied with the European Court's decisions?
What would be the consequences of not complying? What factors account
for the comparative success of the European human rights system?
- Was the expansion of the Council of Europe to include eastern European states
and former members of the Soviet Union a good idea? Will it help to undermine or strengthen
the European human rights system?
- What are the implications of Ireland v. United Kingdom for the US treatment of detainees in the war against terrorism? Should the European Court's interpretation of "torture" and "inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment" bind the United States? Should it help inform US decisionmaking?