Re McKerr
The Human Rights Act 1998 does not apply retrospectively, so it did not impose a duty to investigate a death which occurred before the Act came into force.
Facts
Mr McKerr was shot dead by police officers in Northern Ireland in 1982. There had been an inquest and criminal proceedings, but his son claimed that there had never been an effective investigation into the death, as required by article 2 of the European Convention. The European Court of Human Rights had held, in McKerr v United Kingdom, that the investigation was inadequate. The son sought a declaration that the government was obliged under the Human Rights Act 1998 to hold a new investigation.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held that the Act did not apply to deaths which occurred before it came into force in October 2000. Lord Nicholls said that the procedural obligation to investigate a death was a continuing obligation under the Convention, but that the Act was not retrospective, and the rights it created were rights in domestic law which arose only from the date it came into force. The approach was later modified in In re McCaughey, following the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Šilih v Slovenia, so that an investigation begun after the Act came into force must comply with article 2.
Related cases on The Convention and the Human Rights Act 1998
- A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56, [2005] 2 AC 68
- Al-Jedda v United Kingdom (2011) 53 EHRR 23
- Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley Parochial Church Council v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, [2004] 1 AC 546
- Banković v Belgium (2007) 44 EHRR SE5
- Bellinger v Bellinger [2003] UKHL 21, [2003] 2 AC 467
- Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza [2004] UKHL 30, [2004] 2 AC 557
- Kay v Lambeth London Borough Council [2006] UKHL 10, [2006] 2 AC 465
- R (Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 26, [2008] 1 AC 153
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