The Gibraltar Shooting Case

European Court of Human Rights Case No. 17/1994/464/545

33 Pages Posted: 15 Oct 2008

See all articles by Douwe Korff

Douwe Korff

Oxford Martin School - Global Cyber Capacity Centre; Eur. Univ. Viadrina - Centre for Internet & Human Rights; Yale University - Information Society Project; London Metropolitan University

Date Written: September 1995

Abstract

On Sunday, 6 March 1988, in Gibraltar, soldiers from the British "Special Air Services" Regiment, the SAS, shot dead three suspected IRA terrorists, Daniel McCann, Sean Savage and Mairead Farrell. In 1995, the European Court of Human Rights held that their killing had violated their "right to life", as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The author, who was counsel for the applicants in the case (relatives of the deceased) examines this complex judgment, which has become a leading case on the use of force by law enforcement agencies in Europe. He shows that the case established that States are expected to exercise due diligence and care, even in anti-terrorist operations; and that the Court felt that it had a duty to examine "most carefully" whether the authorities of the State that killed have fulfilled this duty. He concludes that "last but not least, Governments will be aware that they will be subject to this scrutiny. In that sense, McCann is a victory for the rule of law over raison d'¿tat."

Keywords: human rights, right to life, european convention on human rights, terrorism, killings

Suggested Citation

Korff, Douwe, The Gibraltar Shooting Case (September 1995). European Court of Human Rights Case No. 17/1994/464/545, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1284905 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1284905

Douwe Korff (Contact Author)

Oxford Martin School - Global Cyber Capacity Centre ( email )

University of Oxford
34 Broad Street
Oxford, OX1 3BD
United Kingdom

Eur. Univ. Viadrina - Centre for Internet & Human Rights ( email )

Grosse Scharrnstr. 59
Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg 15230
Germany

Yale University - Information Society Project ( email )

P.O. Box 208206
New Haven, CT 06520-8206
United States

London Metropolitan University ( email )

London
United Kingdom

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