SUSPENDING HUMAN RIGHTS: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LEGAL POSSIBILITIES AND PRACTICE SUBTITLE Word count: 49,852 Marlies Vanhooren Student number: 01413451 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Haeck A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Laws Academic year: 2017 - 2018 Acknowledgments Ik zou graag mijn promotor en commisaris, professor dr. Haeck en meneer Van Pachtenbeke bedanken om mij de kans te geven om dit interessante en actuele onderwerp te onderzoeken. Daarnaast natuurlijk ook mijn familie die mij met raad, daad en heel veel zoetigheden bijstonden en mijn vriend voor al het nalezen, de verhelderende discussies en nog meer zoetigheden. 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 4 Derogation Models ............................................................................................................ 5 Giorgio Agamben ................................................................................................................ 7 Agamben on Necessity ................................................................................................................. 7 Force-of-law ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Agamben on Schmitt .................................................................................................................... 8 Agamben on Walter Benjamin ............................................................................................... 10 Homo Sacer ..................................................................................................................................... 12 The strategy of the European Court for Human Rights to neutralise a threat to the life of a Member State .......................................................................... 14 Human Rights treaty clauses allowing for a derogations ................................... 14 a) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights .......................................... 14 b) American Convention on Human Rights – Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica ..... 15 c) European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ..................................................................................................................... 16 Margin of appreciation .................................................................................................. 17 Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on derogations ....... 22 a) Interstate ................................................................................................................................ 23 b) Individual applications .................................................................................................... 30 Contesting applicants ........................................................................................................................... 30 Applicants agreeing with the proclaimed public emergency .............................................. 42 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 47 National strategies to neutralise a threat to the nation ............................ 50 France .................................................................................................................................. 50 The French eXception ................................................................................................................. 50 “L’état de siège” ....................................................................................................................................... 50 “L’état d’urgence” ................................................................................................................................... 51 Pouvoirs eXceptionnelles .................................................................................................................... 55 AuX armes citoyens - the (Fifth) Republic under threat ............................................. 56 1. French-Algerian war (1954-1962) ............................................................................................ 57 2. Generals’ Revolt (1961-1963) ..................................................................................................... 59 3. 2005 French riots .............................................................................................................................. 62 4. Attacks of November 2015 ............................................................................................................ 62 Germany .............................................................................................................................. 66 Germany’s possible reactions to an emergency ............................................................. 66 Defence to threats coming from outside Germany .................................................................. 66 Verteidigungsfall (115A) ................................................................................................................ 66 Process ............................................................................................................................................ 66 Permitted limitations to basis rights .................................................................................. 69 Spannungs- und Zustimmungsfall (80a §1) ............................................................................ 71 Bündnisfall (80a §3) ......................................................................................................................... 71 Defence against threats coming from inside Germany .......................................................... 72 Threats to the free democratic basis order (Art. 91) ........................................................... 72 Threats coming from natural disasters (Art. 35) .................................................................. 73 Deutschland über alles .............................................................................................................. 73 From 1848 to 1944: one century, two world wars, three constitutions ........................ 73 From 1944 until now ............................................................................................................................ 79 The United Kingdom ....................................................................................................... 84 Strategies to overcome an emergency threatening the United Kingdom ........... 84 Human Rights Act ................................................................................................................................... 84 The Act ................................................................................................................................................... 84 Its implications ................................................................................................................................... 86 The Civil Contingencies Act ................................................................................................................ 89 What is an emergency in the United Kingdom and who has the power to declare one? ................................................................................................................................................................... 89 2 What measures can be taken when a State of Emergency is declared, and who can decide they are necessary? ....................................................................................................................... 91 Martial law ................................................................................................................................................ 96 God save the Queen – The United Kingdom under threat .......................................... 97 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 105 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 107 3 Introduction Human rights typically are suspended when the state faces an emergency that threatens its eXistence, or the values it embodies. In those situations, States often proclaim a state of emergency, during which certain rights are suspended, in order for those rights to survive the period of tumult. In this dissertation, I will investigate what different models eXist to handle a threat to the life of the nation and the traces history left both on the national as on the international level. Because it is not because the intention was to save the democracy, the state or the rule of law by temporarily sacrificing human right for the greater national good, that this means that States always succeed in returning to their normal. The first chapter will deal with the European Court of Human Rights and its role as guardian of the Convention. After all, the Convention system was erected because the Second World War and the decades preceding it had proven that when the situation got though, fundamental rights were the first victims. Today again (still), certain (populist) discourses described human rights as souvenirs of an imaginary better past, where the State didn’t have