Part A: Articles: Denouement of the Deaths on the Rock: the Right to Life of Terrorists

Abstract

This paper analyses the controversial judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in McCann and Others vs. UK. The case concerned the infamous 1988 shootings by British counterterrorist forces of three members of the Irish Republican Army in Gibraltar. McCann was the first case in which the European Court considered allegations of violations of Article 2 of the European Convention, which guarantees the right to life. A narrow majority of the Court, in a judgment which outraged the UK Government, found the UK had breached Article 2. This paper appraises the various components of the McCann judgment, including discussion of previous relevant Article 2 jurisprudence and analysis of McCann's ramifications regarding the use of potentially lethal force by law enforcers in Europe.