“A Matter of Survival? Attributing the Conduct of Secessionist Entities to Third States at the ECtHR”

A Matter of Survival? Attributing the Conduct of Secessionist Entities to Third States at the ECtHR

Is Armenia responsible for human rights violations committed by Nagorno-Karabakh? Is Russia responsible for violations by Abkhazia and South Ossetia? The case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on secessionist entities shows considerable confusion between the concepts of jurisdiction and state responsibility. Attempting to untangle this jurisprudence reveals that the Court’s ultimate attribution test – for the purposes of both jurisdiction and responsibility – is whether the entity ‘survives by virtue of’ third-state support. What is more, the ECtHR’s conceptualization departs not only from the approach of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Law Commission (ILC), but possibly even from the agency principle that underlies attribution in the law of state responsibility more generally.

We are delighted to invite you to our next GCILS Webinar, on Wednesday, 10 February at 3.00pm UK Time. We will welcome Dr Andrea Varga, our new addition to the GCILS Team, lecturer in international law, in conversation with Professor Christian Tams. They will talk at length about Andrea’s research on secessionist entities and the concepts of jurisdiction and state responsibility. As always, after the presentation, there will be a discussion with our audience.

To register for the event, please visit Eventbrite website: https://bit.ly/3ofMg3r

Zoom log-in details will be sent in your registration confirmation email.