Human security versus national security in anti-terrorist operations: Whose security does the margin of appreciation serve?

Abstract

This chapter will discuss how the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has used the margin of appreciation when examining the protection of the right to life in the context of terrorism. It will explain that because of the adverse impact terrorism has on human and national security, there have been challenges in the way these two can be reconciled. However, this chapter will argue that the security debate has detracted from the impact terrorism and counter-terrorism operations have on the human rights of the victims of terrorism. It will submit that national security cannot be a ground for allowing discretion to States in the way they interfere with the right to life and, by increasingly relying on the margin of appreciation, the Court risks blurring the strict standards under which the right to life has to be protected. Indeed, the Court should retain its supervisory role and scrutinise the means States choose to protect the right to life in the fight against terrorism.