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The House of Lords in Al-Jedda and Public International Law: Attribution of Conduct to Un-Authorized Forces and the Power of the Security Council to Displace Human Rights

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References

  1. R. (Al-Jedda) v. Secretary of State for Defence, [2007] UKHL 58, [2008] 1 AC 332 (hereinafter Al-Jedda (HL)), paras. 1-2.

  2. It has been alleged that his release might have been part of a cease-fire agreement with insurgent groups: A. Barker, ‘UK army accused of letting Iraq killers go’, Financial Times (online), 14 February 2008, at <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1adfdd02-db3a-11dc-9fdd-0000779fd2ac.html> (last visited on 29 August 2008).

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  3. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 213 UNTS p. 222 (1950).

  4. R. (Al-Jedda) v. Secretary of State for Defence, [2005] EWHC 1809 (Admin) (hereinafter Al-Jedda (QBD)).

  5. R. (Al-Jedda) v. Secretary of State for Defence, [2006] EWCA Civ. 327, [2007] QB 621 (hereinafter Al-Jedda (CA)).

  6. Behrami v. France, application no. 71412/01 and Saramati v. France, Germany and Norway, application no. 78166/01 (Admissibility), (2007) 45 EHRR SE10 85.

  7. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at paras. 55-113 per Lord Rodger and at para. 131 per Lord Carswell.

  8. Ibid., at para. 124.

  9. Ibid., at para. 24 per Lord Bingham and at para. 124 per Baroness Hale.

  10. Ibid., at para. 124 per Baroness Hale, who refers to Lord Brown’s reasoning at paras. 145-149.

  11. Ibid., at para. 149 per Lord Brown.

  12. Ibid., at para. 87.

  13. Ibid., at paras. 114-118.

  14. Ibid., at para. 152.

  15. Ibid., at para. 126.

  16. Ibid., at paras. 32-39 per Lord Bingham (though not in unequivocal terms), at para. 118 per Lord Rodger, at paras. 151-152 per Lord Brown, at para. 135 per Lord Carswell.

  17. Ibid., at paras. 127-129 per Baroness Hale.

  18. Ibid., at para. 36 per Lord Bingham, at para. 118 per Lord Rodger, at para. 152 per Lord Brown.

  19. Ibid., at para. 39 per Lord Bingham, at para. 126 per Baroness Hale, at paras. 130, 136 per Lord Carswell.

  20. Ibid., at paras. 40-43. See also [2009] EWHC 397 (QB).

  21. Ibid., at para. 3 per Lord Bingham.

  22. Ibid.

  23. No information is available as to the extent of dissent within the Court and the reasons thereof.

  24. Behrami and Saramati cases, supra n. 6, at para. 61.

  25. Ibid., at paras. 5-7; 8-17. The application against Germany was withdrawn because no German official was involved.

  26. Ibid., at paras. 132-143; 144.

  27. Ibid., at para. 140.

  28. Ibid., at para. 142.

  29. Ibid., at para. 144.

  30. Bosphorus Hava Yollari Turizm Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi v. Ireland (Merits) (GC), no. 45036/98, (2006) 42 EHRR 1.

  31. Behrami and Saramati cases, supra n. 6, at para. 145.

  32. Ibid., at para. 148.

  33. Ibid., at para. 149.

  34. Ibid.

  35. A. Sari, ‘Jurisdiction and International Responsibility in Peace Support Operations: the Behrami and Saramati cases’, 8 Human Rights Law Review (2008) p. 151 at p. 169. See also G. Verdirame, ‘Breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights Resulting from the Conduct of International Organisations’, European Human Rights Law Review (2008) p. 209; M. Milanovic and T. Papic, ‘As Bad as it Gets: The European Court of Human Rights’ Behrami and Saramati Decision and General International Law’, 58 ICLQ (forthcoming, 2009).

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  36. Sari, supra n. 35.

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  37. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 48 per Lord Rodger; see R. (Al-Skeini) v. Secretary of State for Defence, [2007] UKHL 26, [2008] 1 AC 153 (UK House of Lords, 13 June 2007), at para. 61 per Lord Rodger and para. 97 per Lord Carswell.

  38. International Law Commission, First report on responsibility of international organizations by Mr. Giorgio Gaja, Special Rapporteur, UN Doc. A/CN.4/532, p. 20 (para. 38).

  39. Commentary to provisional Art. 3, in Report of the International Law Commission, Fiftyfifth session, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 10 (A/58/10), p. 47 (para. 48): ‘The fact that an international organization is responsible for an internationally wrongful act does not exclude the existence of parallel responsibility of other subjects of international law in the same set of circumstances.’

  40. International Law Commission, Second report on responsibility of international organizations by Mr. Giorgio Gaja, Special Rapporteur, UN Doc. A/CN.4/541, pp. 3-8 (paras. 5-13) (hereinafter: ILC second report).

  41. ILC second report, supra n. 40, at p. 4, where Gaja quotes J.-P. Ritter, ‘La protection diplomatique à l’égard d’une organisation internationale’, 8 Annuaire français de Droit international (1962) p. 427 at pp. 444-445 (with reference to ‘dommage’); International Law Association, Report of the seventieth conference held in New Delhi, 2–6 April 2002 (London, International Law Association 2002) p. 797. See also J. Crawford, ‘Holding International Organisations and Their members to Account’, p. 9, at <http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/docs/view.php?doc=4135> (last visited on 29 August 2008).

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  42. ILC second report, supra n. 40, at pp. 3-4 (para. 7), where Gaja quotes Banković and others v. Belgium and other 16 member states (Admissibility) (GC), no. 52207/99, 41 ILM (2002) p. 517 (ECtHR) and the Legality of the Use of Force cases before the International Court of Justice as two examples where NATO members were individually called to respond for the actions of their troops acting through NATO. None of these cases ever was decided on the merits.

  43. In 1950 the US government accepted to pay compensation to China for damages occurred during the Korean war authorized by the UN SC: ILC second report, supra n. 40, at p. 15 (para. 32). And again in 2000 the US and China reached a bilateral agreement concerning the bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade during the NATO campaign of 1999: ibid., at p. 4 (fn. 11). In both cases the US accepted responsibility for acts which involved an international organization (albeit to different degrees).

  44. Sari, supra n. 35.

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  45. Art. 5 and commentary (responsibility of international organizations), in Report of the International Law Commission, Fifty-sixth session, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fiftyninth Session, Supplement No. 10 (A/59/10), pp. 109-115 (hereinafter ILC report 56th session).

  46. Art. 5 of the draft articles was mentioned (but misapplied) in Behrami, supra n. 6, at para. 30. The parties in Al-Jedda agreed upon the applicability of Art. 5 of the draft articles: Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 5. This exonerated their Lordships from deciding on the authoritativeness of its formulation.

  47. See ILC second report, supra n. 40, at p. 19 (fn. 64).

  48. ILC report 56th session, supra n. 45, at p. 102 (para. 105). The practice of the UN confirms this view: ILC second report, supra n. 40, at pp. 16 (para. 33) et seq.

  49. Behrami, supra n. 6, at para. 129.

  50. Ibid., at paras. 143-144.

  51. Ibid., at para. 127.

  52. Ibid., at para. 133.

  53. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 105.

  54. Ibid., at para. 112.

  55. Ibid., at para. 24. See more generally at paras. 5-25.

  56. ILC report 56th session, supra n. 45, at p. 109; quoted by Lord Bingham at para. 5 and also quoted (but misapplied) in Behrami, supra n. 6, at para. 30.

  57. UNSC Res. 1483 (2003); UNSC Res. 1500 (2003); UNSC Res. 1511 (2003); UNSC Res. 1546 (2004); UNSC Res. 1557 (2004); UNSC Res. 1637 (2005); UNSC Res. 1700 (2006); UNSC Res. 1723 (2006). More recently, see UNSC Res. 1770 (2007) and UNSC Res. 1790 (2007), respectively renewing the peacekeeping mission UNAMI until August 2008 and extending the mandate of MNF-I until December 2008.

  58. Especially with reference to the legal framework of UNSC Res. 1244 (1999).

  59. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 23.

  60. Ibid., at paras. 16 and 23.

  61. Ibid., at para. 23.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid., at para. 61.

  64. Ibid., at para. 88.

  65. Ibid., at para. 63.

  66. Ibid., at para. 65.

  67. Ibid., at para. 77.

  68. Ibid., at para. 143.

  69. Ibid., at para. 148.

  70. Ibid., at para. 124.

  71. Ibid., at para. 23.

  72. Ibid., at para. 124.

  73. Gajic v. Germany, application no. 31446/02 (Admissibility), 28 August 2007, unreported, in which the Court declared the application inadmissible in 512 words. See Dušan Berić and others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, application no. 36357/04 (Admissibility), (2008) 46 EHRR SE6 77; Kasumaj v. Greece, application no. 6974/05 (Admissibility), 5 July 2007, unreported.

  74. J. Lewis, ‘The European Ceiling on Human Rights’, Public Law (2007) p. 720. See also In re McKerr (Northern Ireland), [2004] UKHL 12, [2004] 1 WLR 807, at para. 65.

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  75. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 55.

  76. Al-Skeini, supra n. 37, at para. 90 per Baroness Hale; see also R. (Ullah) v. Special Adjudicator, [2004] UKHL 26, [2004] 2 AC 323, at para. 20 per Lord Bingham.

  77. R. Clayton, ‘The Human Rights Act Six Years On: Where Are We Now’, 12 European Human Rights Law Review (2007) p. 11 at p. 18. See also Alconbury, [2001] UKHL 23, [2003] 2 AC 295 (UK House of Lords, 9 May 2001), at para. 26; In re McKerr (Northern Ireland), supra n. 74, at para. 65; R. Masterman, ‘Taking the Strasbourg Jurisprudence into Account: Developing a “Municipal Law of Human Rights” under the Human Rights Act’, 54 ICLQ (2005) p. 907 at pp. 908 et seq.

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  79. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 27.

  80. Ibid., at para. 31.

  81. Ibid., at para. 32.

  82. Ibid.

  83. Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907), 2 AJIL (1908) (Supp.) p. 90; 75 UNTS p. 287 (1949).

  84. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 32.

  85. Ibid., at para. 33.

  86. Ibid.

  87. Ibid., at para. 34.

  88. Ibid.

  89. Ibid., at para. 35.

  90. Ibid.

  91. Ibid., at para. 39 (emphasis added).

  92. Ibid., at paras. 114-118 per Lord Rodger and at para. 152 per Lord Brown.

  93. Ibid., at para. 122.

  94. Ibid., at para. 126.

  95. Ibid.

  96. Ibid., at para. 127, quoting the letters annexed to UNSC Res. 1546 (2004).

  97. Ibid., at para. 128.

  98. Ibid., at para. 129.

  99. Ibid., at para. 130.

  100. Ibid., at para. 135.

  101. Ibid., at para. 136.

  102. Ibid., at para. 39 quoted above.

  103. P. Shiner, ‘Public interest lawyers, press release’, 12 December 2007, at <http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=2272> (last visited on 29 August 2008).

  104. See Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 121 per Baroness Hale.

  105. Barker, supra n. 2.

  106. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 129.

  107. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Advisory Opinion), ICJ Rep. (2004) p. 136, at paras. 105-106; Case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda) (Judgment), ICJ Rep. (2005) at paras. 178 and 215-220.

  108. UK Ministry of Defence, ‘Operations in Iraq: Facts and figures’, at <http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInIraqFactsandFigures.htm> (last visited on 29 August 2008).

  109. UNSC Res. 1511 (2003), at para. 13.

  110. UNSC Res. 1546 (2004), at para. 9.

  111. Ibid., at para. 10.

  112. Ibid.

  113. Ibid., at para. 12.

  114. UNSC Res. 1637 (2005); UNSC Res. 1723 (2006); UNSC Res. 1790 (2007).

  115. UK Ministry of Defence, supra n. 108.

  116. See at <http://www.mnf-iraq.com> (last accessed on 29 August 2008).

  117. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 32.

  118. UNSC Res. 1546 (2004), at para. 2.

  119. Art. 42, supra n. 83.

  120. UK Ministry of Defence, ‘People of Basra “optimistic” as Iraqi Army take control in the city’, 23 April 2008, at <http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/PeopleOfBasraoptimisticAsIraqiArmyTakeControlInTheCity.htm> (last visited on 29 August 2008).

  121. E. Benvenisti, ‘Applicability of the Law of Occupation’, 99 ASIL Proc. (2005) p. 29.

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  122. Art. 2, GC-IV; see Benvenisti, supra n. 121.

  123. Art. 47, GC-IV; see Benvenisti, supra n. 121.

  124. Art. 42 GC-IV also deals in similar terms with internment of protected persons outside occupied territory (internment ‘may be ordered only if the security of the Detaining Power makes it absolutely necessary’).

  125. Art. 71 GC-IV.

  126. Art. 72 GC-IV.

  127. Art. 76 GC-IV.

  128. Arts. 132 and 133 GC-IV respectively.

  129. Art. 118 Geneva Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GC-III), 75 UNTS p. 135 (1949).

  130. ‘Rule 128’, in International Committee of the Red Cross, J.-M. Henckaerts and L. Doswald-Beck, eds., Customary International Humanitarian Law, Vol. I: Rules (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2005) p. 451.

  131. Art. 5(1) ECHR.

  132. Art. 5(2) ECHR.

  133. Art. 5(3) ECHR.

  134. Art. 5(4) ECHR.

  135. ‘Rule 99’, supra n. 130, pp. 344 et seq.

  136. Ibid., at p. 345, paraphrasing the ICTY in Prosecutor v. Delalić and Others (Čelebići case) (Trial Chamber), no. IT-96-21-T (16 November 1998), at para. 576. The Court was referring to Art. 42 GC-IV, rather than Art. 78 GC-IV, but the same reasoning seems applicable here.

  137. Al-Jedda (HL), supra n. 1, at para. 126.

  138. Ibid., at para. 128.

  139. Barker, supra n. 2. But see the new proceedings: [2009] EWHC 397 (QB).

  140. Al-Jedda (QBD), supra n. 4, at paras. 33-74.

  141. Al-Jedda (CA), supra n. 5, at paras. 88-99.

  142. R. (Quark Fishing Ltd) v. Foreign Secretary, [2005] UKHL 57, [2006] 1 AC 529 (UK House of Lords, 13 October 2005), at para. 25 per Lord Bingham, at paras. 32-34 per Lord Nicholls and at paras. 87-88 per Lord Hope.

  143. Supra n. 74 and accompanying text.

  144. See, e.g., Lewis, supra n. 74; Masterman, supra n. 77; Clayton, supra n. 77.

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  145. European Court of Justice, Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities, nos. C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P, 3 September 2008, [2008] CMLR 3, 41; see also the opinion of Advocate General Poiares Maduro, ibid.; see also European Court of First Instance, Kadi v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities, no. T-315/01, [2005] ECR II-3649. On a similar issue, see A., K., M., Q. & G. v. HM Treasury, [2008] EWHC 869 (Admin).

  146. E.g., Italian Constitutional Court, Frontini contro Ministero delle Finanze, no. 183/73, [1974] CMLR 2, 372, 388-390.

  147. Solange-I case (Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH v. Einfuhr- und Vorratsstelle für Getreide und Futtermittel), [1974] CMLR 2, 540, 551.

  148. Solange-II case (Re the application of Wünsche Handelsgesellschaft), [1987] CMLR 3, 225, 259 and 262-265.

  149. Maastricht case (Manfred Brunner and Others v. The European Union Treaty), [1994] CMLR 1, 57, 79.

  150. Bosphorus case, supra n. 30, at para. 155; the Court then held at para. 165 that the EU provided forva protection equivalent tovthat of the ECHR system.

  151. This may be under developmentv see, e.g., E. de Wet, ‘The International Constitutional Order’, 55 ICLQ (2006) p. 51; A.A. Cançado Trindade, ‘International Law for Humankind: Towards a New Jus Gentium’, 316 Recueil des cours (2005) pp. 13-439 and 317 Recueil des cours (2005) pp. 11-312.. 1

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  1. University of Cambridge, England

    Francesco Messineo Dott. giur. (Catania), LL.M. (Cantab); PhD candidate

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  1. Francesco Messineo Dott. giur. (Catania), LL.M. (Cantab); PhD candidate
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Many thanks to Professor Christine Gray and Professor James Crawford for their very helpful comments. I was research assistant to Professor James Crawford in June-September 2007 while he was, inter alia, acting as Senior Counsel for the Interveners (Justice and Liberty) before the House of Lords in Al-Jedda. My own involvement with the case was minimal. All opinions expressed and mistakes are mine.

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Messineo, F. The House of Lords in Al-Jedda and Public International Law: Attribution of Conduct to Un-Authorized Forces and the Power of the Security Council to Displace Human Rights. Neth Int Law Rev 56, 35–62 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165070X09000357

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