The ECHR and the future of Northern Ireland’s past

In this lecture, John Larkin QC will reflect on the state of the United Kingdom’s constitution by discussing an aspect of an important provision of the European Convention on Human Rights — the procedural obligations under the Article 2 provision on the right to life, and its implications for how policy on the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles is to be made. This reflection on Article 2 and what it means for The Troubles illustrates some more general problems that have arisen from ‘bringing rights home’ – that is, the partial domestication of the ECHR through the Human Rights Act 1998.  The lecture will conclude with some suggestions about what might now be done. With vote of thanks by Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Read John Larkin QC and Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood’s remarks here.