Coercive Human Rights - Positive Duties to Mobilise the Criminal Law under the ECHR

Traditionally, human rights have protected those facing the sharp edge of the criminal justice system. But over time human rights law has become increasingly infused with duties to mobilise criminal law towards protection and redress for violation of rights. These developments give rise to a whole host of questions concerning the precise parameters of coercive human rights, the rationale(s) that underpin them, and their effects and implications for victims, perpetrators, domestic legal systems, and for the theory and practice of human rights and criminal justice. This collection addresses these questions with a focus on the rich jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The collection explores four interlocking themes surrounding the issue of coercive human rights:

First, the key threads in the doctrine of the ECtHR on duties to mobilise the criminal law as a means of delivering human rights protection.

Secondly, the factors that contribute to a readiness to demand coercive measures, including discrimination and vulnerability, and other key justificatory reasoning shaping the development of coercive human rights.

Thirdly, the most pressing challenges for the ECtHR's coercive duties doctrine, including:

- how it relates to theories and rationales of criminalisation and criminal punishment;
- its implications for the fundamental tenets of human rights law itself;
- its relationship to transitional justice objectives; and
- how (far) it coheres with the imperative of effective protection for persons in precarious or vulnerable situations.

Fourthly, the (prospective) evolution of the coercive human rights doctrine and its application within national jurisdictions.

1. Coercive Human Rights: Introducing the Sharp Edge of the European Convention on Human Rights
Natasa Mavronicola and Laurens Lavrysen

PART I
KEY THREADS IN ECtHR DOCTRINE
2. Positive Obligations and the Criminal Law: A Bird's-Eye View on the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
Laurens Lavrysen
3. Positive Obligations and Coercion: Deterrence as a Key Factor in the European Court of Human Rights' Case Law
Paul Lemmens and Marie Courtoy

PART II
PERSPECTIVES ON VICTIMS' PROTECTION AND REDRESS
4. Retribution through Reparations? Evaluating the European Court of Human Rights' Jurisprudence on Gross Human Rights Violations from a Victim's Perspective
Alina Balta
5. Shaping Coercive Obligations through Vulnerability: The Example of the ECtHR
Corina Heri
6. Criminal Law Responses to Hate Speech: Towards a Systematic Approach in Strasbourg?
Stephanos Stavros

PART III
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS: THEORY, IMPACT, LIMITATIONS
7. Positive Obligations in View of the Principle of Criminal Law as a Last Resort
Nina Peršak
8. Sowing a 'Culture of Conviction': What Shall Domestic Criminal Justice Systems Reap from Coercive Human Rights?
Mattia Pinto
9. Coercive Overreach, Dilution and Diversion: Potential Dangers of Aligning Human Rights Protection with Criminal Law (Enforcement)
Natasa Mavronicola
10. Separating Protection from the Exigencies of the Criminal Law: Achievements and Challenges under Article 4 ECHR
Vladislava Stoyanova
11. The Limitations of a Criminal Law Approach in a Transitional Justice Context
Brice Dickson

PART IV
UNCHARTED WATERS FOR THE ECtHR'S COERCIVE DUTIES DOCTRINE
12. Preventive Obligations, Risk and Coercive Overreach
Liora Lazarus
13. Coercive Human Rights and Unlawfully Obtained Evidence in Domestic Criminal Proceedings
Kelly M Pitcher
Postscript: Coercive Human Rights in Times of Coronavirus
Natasa Mavronicola and Laurens Lavrysen