scholarly journals Killing with No Punishment: Police Violence and Judicial (In)justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (SI) ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
Angus Siu-cheong Li
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The State ◽  
Court Case ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Missed Opportunity

This article offers a critical reading of the Limbu Case that took place in 2009 in Hong Kong. The Limbu Case was about an ethnic Nepalese named Dil Bahadur Limbu who was shot dead by a police constable on a hillside, which resulted in controversies around issues such as excessive police use of force and discretionary policing in Hong Kong. In the coroner’s inquest (court case no.: CCDI298/2009) regarding Limbu’s death, a verdict of lawful killing was reached by a jury of five. In other words, the killing was defined as a permissible killing. Drawing attention to the process of questioning “reasonableness” of the killing, I attempt to shed light on the ambiguities of the coronial system in Hong Kong which results in a missed opportunity to prevent future deaths. In other words, this article uncovers how the state is unable to live up to its promise to protect people's right to life.

Çiçek v. Turkey

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
The Face ◽  
Effective Remedy ◽  
The Right

The State was responsible and had not provided any explanation of what occurred after persons were taken into detention and had not attempted to justify the lethal use of force, causing a violation of the right to life. State authorities are obligated to conduct some form of effective official investigation when individuals are killed as a result of the use of force. The uncertainty, doubt and apprehension which a mother of victims of grave human rights violations and herself the victim of the authorities' complacency in the face of her distress had suffered over a prolonged and continuing period of time had undoubtedly caused her severe mental distress and anguish. The authorities are required to take effective measures to safeguard against the risk of disappearance and to conduct a prompt effective investigation into an arguable claim that a person had been taken into custody and had not been seen since. Where the relatives of a person has an arguable claim that the latter had disappeared at the hands of the authorities, the notion of an effective remedy entailed, in addition to the payment of compensation where appropriate, a thorough and effective investigation capable of leading to the identification and punishment of those responsible.

8. Article 2: right to life

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-193
Author(s):  
Howard Davis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The State ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
General Duty ◽  
European Court ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Domestic Law

Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. It discusses European Convention law and relates it to domestic law under the HRA. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter focuses on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which imposes on the state the general duty of protecting ‘everyone’s right to life’. Article 2 specifically states that the first duty of states is to protect the physical security of all those within their jurisdiction. It describes the only purposes for which the intentional use of force can be lawfully justified. In interpreting and applying Article 2, the European Court of Human Rights has identified and developed a number of general principles to which the domestic laws of signatory states must adhere—in particular the duty to investigate deaths for which the state is responsible. These principles are discussed in detail in the chapter.

scholarly journals Big data and the New Transparency: Measuring and representing police killings

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395171769633
Author(s):  
Ben Brucato
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force

Controversies about recent killings by police officers in the United States have prompted widespread questioning about the scale and changes in police use of force. A perceived lack of transparency about the frequency of police killings amplifies concerns that many such killings are unjustified. This commentary considers efforts by journalists and activists to comprise databases that document and measure police violence, particularly in terms of how these endeavors exemplify the New Transparency.

Police Violence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenna Milani ◽  
Ben Bradford ◽  
Jonathan Jackson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Self Harm

The ability of the police to assert social control and reproduce social order depends, crucially, on the capacity to use force to achieve these ends—whether when restraining someone attempting to self-harm or shooting dead an armed terrorist. But what do we know about police use of force in the United States and England and Wales? Why does unjustified police use of force occur? And why do citizens have different views on the acceptability and unacceptability of various forms of police violence?

Assessing the Relationship Between Police Use of Force and Inmate Offending (Rule Violations)

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Klahm ◽  
Benjamin Steiner ◽  
Benjamin Meade
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Cycle Of Violence ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
Police Authority ◽  
The Relationship

We assess the effects of exposure to police use of force on inmates’ odds of offending in prison using survey data collected from a national sample of inmates. We found, net of relevant controls, prisoners subjected to police violence were more likely to engage in assaultive and other rule violating behavior, especially those who did not resist police authority. Consistent with the cycle of violence hypothesis, our findings suggest violence perpetrated by legal authorities produces similar effects to exposure to violence in general. Moreover, the consequences of police use of force are especially problematic when the recipient fails to perceive his or her treatment was fair, which supports the theoretical perspective on procedural fairness and legitimacy. Policy implications are discussed.

Attitudes as predictors of police use of force

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon D. Riley ◽  
Donna M. Desforges
Keyword(s):  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Use Of Force

The Baluch, Sunnism and the State in Iran

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
First Century ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Oasis Area ◽  
Shed Light

Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.

Statehood and the State-Like in International Law

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Important Conclusion ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Peremptory Norms ◽  
Legal Sense

If the term were given its literal meaning, international law would be law between ‘nations’. It is often described instead as being primarily between states. But this conceals the diversity of the nations or state-like entities that have personality in international law or that have had it historically. This book reconceptualizes statehood by positioning it within that wider family of state-like entities. An important conclusion of the book is that states themselves have diverse legal underpinnings. Practice in cases such as Somalia and broader principles indicate that international law provides not one but two alternative methods of qualifying as a state: subject to exceptions connected with territorial integrity and peremptory norms, an entity can be a state either on the ground that it meets criteria of effectiveness or on the ground that it is recognized by all other states. Another conclusion is that states, in the strict legal sense in which the word is used today, have never been the only state-like entities with personality in international law. Others from the past and present include imperial China in the period when it was unreceptive to Western norms; pre-colonial African chiefdoms; ‘states-in-context’, an example of which may be Palestine, which have the attributes of statehood relative to states that recognize them; and entities such as Hong Kong.

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