A Right to Rehabilitation under the ECHR?

This seminar is hosted by the Centre for Human Rights and the School of Law Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our research centres (the Centre for American Legal Studies, the Centre for Human Rights, the Centre for Science, Law and Policy, and the International Business Law Research Group). Our work is often transdisciplinary, dealing with law's relationship with broadly defined social justice, policy-making, science and much more. Join us for invigorating discussion!

In this session, we hear from Rebecca Lawrence. Rebecca researches in the fields of prisoner rights, criminal justice, and European human rights. She is currently in the final stages of completing her PhD studies at the University of Exeter, supported by a SSIS studentship. The project focuses on the operation of the qualified rights under the ECHR in the context of imprisonment.  Prior to beginning her doctorate, she was awarded scholarships to undertake an MRes in Socio-Legal Research at Exeter, and the BCL at the University of Oxford. She also graduated with a 1st class degree in Law from Oxford in 2015, winning the prize for submitting the best paper in Criminology.  She has experience teaching criminal law, constitutional and administrative law, and various topics within human rights law and criminal justice. While teaching at Exeter, she received a Vice-Chancellor Commendation for her contribution to teaching.

In this session, Ms Lawrence will give the following presentation, followed by an interactive Q&A:

A Right to Rehabilitation under the ECHR?

Abstract: An analysis of the 'principle of rehabilitation' introduced in recent European Court of Human Rights decisions on prisoner rights. The presentation will focus on the introduction of the principle within the European Court's caselaw (Dickson v United Kingdom) and its role in the Court's reasoning process in subsequent cases. It will be concluded that the principle has been used to little effect outside of the specific context of whole-life sentences under Article 3. It will then be considered whether the link made by the Court between the principle of rehabilitation and human dignity justifies recognition of rehabilitation as a right owed to all prisoners, regardless of length of sentence.

If you have any questions, contact Iyan Offor, the Research Seminar Series leader, at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk.

This seminar has now concluded but it is available on demand here. If you find that you do not have access, you can email the research seminar series leader at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk in order to gain access.