To mark the High Level Conference on the future of the European Court of Human Rights taking place in Brighton from 18th - 20th April 2012 , members of the Sussex Law School, including both staff and students, have prepared short assessments of particular decisions of the European Court of Human Rights which have had an impact either in their field of teaching or reseach. The purpose is to highlight some of the effects of the Court as a Human Rights institution, particularly in terms of the positive impact it has had on domestic law in the UK:

• Susan Millns (European Law) with colleagues at the University of Kent (Dr Clare Saunders and Professor Christopher Rootes) have recently produced a report examining the implementation and domestic impact of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Their report is accessible from this website;

• Craig Barker (International Law) highlights the case of Soering v. United Kingdom (1989), which decided that the so-called death row phenomenon in the United States was a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment;

• Jo Bridgeman (Family Law and Healthcare) has highlighted the importance of the ECHR in protecting the vulnerable, especially children, as discussed in the case of Glass v. United Kingdom (2004);

• Elizabeth Craig (International Human Rights and Minority Rights) assesses the role of hearsay evidence in criminal cases and the right to a fair trial through an assessment of Al-Khawaja and Tahery v. UK (2011);

• Marie Dembour (Law and Anthropology, Human Rights) assesses the relationship between the UK Government and the European Court of Human Rights in relation to 'the troubles' in Northern Ireland focusing on the decision of the Court in Ireland v. United Kingdom;

• Matthew Garrod (Research Student)  has included a longer assessment of the controversial case of Othman v. United Kingdom (2012) which deals with the extradition of alleged terrorist Abu-Qatada;

• Stefanie Grant (Visiting Research Fellow) focuses on the case of Tyrer v. United Kingdom (1978) which was the first case in which an international court challenged the corporal punishment of children on human rights grounds;

• Heather Keating (Criminal Law and Family Law) has addressed the difficult question of emergency child protection asking the question when is it appropriate to remove a child at birth from its mother, through an assessment of the case of K and T v. Finland (2001);

• Charlotte Skeet (Human Rights) presents B and L v. United Kingdom (2005), and considers whose morality the UK law reflects, in this little known case on the effect of archaic prohibitions on the right to marry.

• Tom Southerden (Research Student) addresses the question of asylum and the obligations on Convention States not to return individuals to countries where they will face inhuman and degrading punishment in breach of Article 3 of the Convention through a brief analysis of the case of Vilvarajah and Ors. v. United Kingdom (1991);

• Richard Vogler (Criminal Law and Criminology) addresses the important question of criminal procedure and the development by the Court of the so-called European Miranda in Fox, Campbell and Hartley v. United Kingdom (1990);

• Mark Walters (Criminal Law and Criminology) highlights the significant role that the European Convention of Human Rights and its Court has played in the development of LGBT rights in the United Kingdom over the past 15 years through is assessment of the decision in Goodwin v. United Kingdom (2002).

Full judgments in these cases can be accessed through the ECHR’s HUDO Database, which is available at:
European Court of Human Rights HUDO