Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law: The Ends of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Degrading treatment is one form of harm within the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, recognised as one of the most fundamental guarantees within international human rights law. The prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment has been interpreted as the right that reflects most clearly the human rights law ideal of protecting human dignity and as a right that permits no legitimate limitations. The European Court of Human Rights ('the Court') is internationally recognised as having been at the forefront of interpretation of the right not to be subjected to torture or other prohibited harm. The Court has developed a rich body of principles and it has pioneered the extension of Article 3 to situations beyond the most common ones of detention and police ill-treatment. Although scholars have shown longstanding interest in the boundaries of interpretation of the prohibition of torture from different perspectives, the existing body of work does not sufficiently reflect the significance of the scope of meaning and application of degrading treatment.

This book fills this lacuna by exploring and evaluating the interpretive scope of the prohibition of degrading treatment in order to provide courts, scholars and practitioners with analytical tools to advance the application of the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international, regional and domestic human rights law. Webster centres her analysis around three core aims: to explain the past trajectory of degrading treatment case-law; to advocate a conceptually-coherent interpretation of degrading treatment; and to assess future directions in the application of the prohibition of degrading treatment.

This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of human rights law.

Although scholars have shown longstanding interest in the boundaries of interpretation of the right not to be subjected to torture and other prohibited harm, the existing body of work does not sufficiently reflect the significance of the interpretive scope of degrading treatment. This book argues that the degrading treatment element of the right is a crucial site of analysis, in itself and for understanding the parameters of the right as a whole. It addresses how, methodologically, the scope of meaning and application of the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment should best be identified and considers the implications thereof. It systematically examines the diverse aspects of degrading treatment's scope, from foundations of legal interpretation to the drivers of humiliation. It draws on wide-ranging literature and extensive analysis of more than 1,500 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which has pioneered the right's interpretive growth. The book aims to explore how the interpretive possibilities, and limits, of the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment turn upon the axes of human dignity and state responsibility, and aims to show how this right's protection can be achieved as well as limited through processes of interpretation.　

Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law provides interpreters with analytical tools to advance the application of the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international, regional and domestic human rights law. It will appeal to all who have an interest in understanding the right's meaning, development, and potential scope of application, as well as those with an interest in methodologies of human rights interpretation.