Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter Summary PART I LEGAL AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 1. Substantive Scene-Setting – The Prohibition of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment Chapter Summary I. The Evolving Prohibition of Torture II. The ECtHR’s Interpretation of Article 3 ECHR III. Vulnerability and the Evolutive Interpretation of Article 3 ECHR IV. Interim Conclusion 2. Theoretical Scene-Setting – Vulnerability Theory Chapter Summary I. A Primer on Vulnerability Theory II. The Work of Martha Albertson Fineman III. Theorising Human Rights through a Vulnerability Lens PART II MAPPING THE COURT’S APPROACH TO VULNERABILITY 3. A Typology of the Court’s Approach to Vulnerability under Article 3 ECHR Chapter Summary I. Overview: A Typology and Distribution of References II. Dependency-based Vulnerability III. Vulnerability Due to State Control IV. Vulnerability Due to Victimisation V. Vulnerability in the Context of Migration VI. Vulnerability Due to Discrimination and Marginalisation VII. Vulnerability, Pregnancy and Precarious Reproductive Health VIII. Vulnerability Due to the Espousal of Unpopular Views IX. Intersecting Vulnerabilities X. Underexplored Sources of Vulnerability 4. The Growth and Impact of Vulnerability Reasoning Chapter Summary I. A Quantitative Analysis of Vulnerability under Article 3 II. The Effects of Vulnerability under Article 3 ECHR 5. Evaluation of the Court’s Approach in Practice Chapter Summary I. Vulnerability as a Vehicle of Exclusion and Inclusion II. Reticence, Selectivity and the ‘Floodgates’ Problem PART III CONTEXTUALISING AND CRITIQUING THE COURT’S APPROACH 6. Situating Vulnerability Reasoning in a Broader Context Chapter Summary I. Vulnerability and Other Human Rights Bodies II. Vulnerability and the Context of Minority Rights III. Vulnerability in the Court’s Non-Discrimination Jurisprudence 7. Vulnerability Deciphered – Human Dignity, Substantive Equality and Judicial Empathy Chapter Summary I. On Human Dignity and Vulnerability II. On Vulnerability, Justice and Equality III. On the Court’s ‘Legitimacy’ and Judicial Empathy IV. Interim Conclusion: Synthesising a Coherent Theory of Vulnerability 8. Conclusion – A Framework for Using Vulnerability under Article 3 ECHR Chapter Summary I. Between Theory and Practice: Concerns about the Court’s Approach II. Bringing Coherence to the Court’s Vulnerability Heuristic III. Revolutionising the Revolution: Vulnerability Theory and its Guidance for the Court IV. Final Thoughts A Note on Methodology

Promotional Information

This is the first and much needed book-length examination of the treatment of vulnerability by the European Court of Human Rights, paying particular attention to important question of human dignity.

About the Author

Corina Heri is a post-doctoral researcher at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Reviews

I highly recommend this book to all those who are interested in the relationship between vulnerability and the ECHR and Article 3 more generally. It will be an invaluable point of reference and it offers new conceptual grounds through which to advance Article 3.
*Law & Justice - The Christian Law Review*

Heri’s Responsive Human Rights serves as a rich resource on human vulnerability, human dignity, and ill-treatment under Article 3 of the ECHR, a thorough and layered critical review of the ECtHR’s interpretive navigation of these concepts, and a commanding invitation to (re)think and (re)imagine (our) universal and particular experiences of vulnerability and its human rights implications in meaningfully egalitarian terms.
*Common Market Law Review*