Al-Saadoon v United Kingdom: another shot at human rights accountability for the extraterritorial use of lethal force

On this blog, I commented earlier on Jaloud v the Netherlands (2014), the latest judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the extraterritorial application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A new case before the Court may now be in the making. On 9 September 2016 the Court of Appeal of England and Wales rendered a judgment in the test cases of Al-Saadoon and others v Secretary of State for Defence regarding the question whether the UK is accountable under human rights law vis-à-vis a number of victims of lethal force in Iraq during the 2003 invasion and the post-occupation phase after 2004 (for earlier comments see here and here). The cases raise important issues as to the application of human rights law to the exercise of extraterritorial force over individuals and are likely to wind their way up to the UK Supreme Court and ultimately the ECtHR.