Applicability of the ECHR to British Soldiers in Iraq

Abstract

This very brief case note discusses the R. (Smith) v. Oxford Assistant Deputy Coroner (Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening) [2010] UKSC 29, [2010] 3 WLR 223 case, in which the UK Supreme Court decided that the ECHR will apply extraterritorially only to UK soldiers who finds themselves on a UK base; if they died outside an area under the UK's effective control, there would be no requirement for an Article 2 ECHR-compliant investigation into their death. The note argues that the Court's holding in Smith logically flows from the House of Lords judgment in Al-Skeini, but accordingly also rests on the (probably unwarranted) assumption that Al-Skeini was correctly decided.

Keywords: ECHR, Human Rights, Extraterritorial Application, Smith, Al-Skeini