scholarly journals The Price of Medical Negligence – Should it Be Judged by the Criminal Court in the Context of the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-152
Author(s):  
Darius Pranka

Abstract The article deals with a recently relevant issue – whether a doctor who has made an error or was negligent during his or her professional activity that has resulted in injury or death should be prosecuted, whether this type of liability is not too strict, and whether it is proportionate and adequate to the specificities of the medical profession. From the point of view of criminal justice in Lithuania, this topic has not been investigated at all. The courts hear such criminal cases without any exceptions for doctors. However, in an international level, the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights or investigations in other states suggest that criminal liability is not always a binding legal consequence in such cases. After having analysed and summarised the case-law of the said court, by taking into account the insights of foreign authors, the danger of medical error and ultima ratio principle, the author raises the idea that the current practice in civil medical negligence when doctors are prosecuted for simple negligence should be changed.

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1393-1406
Author(s):  
Stephan Ast

Whether or not the prohibition of torture allows exemptions is controversial not only in Germany but worldwide. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had to answer this question in the case of Gäfgen versus Germany (App. 22978/05). The Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court delivered its judgment on 1 June 2010. It held that the prohibition of torture (Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) does not grant any exemptions, even if the life of another is at risk. The present case commentary agrees with this result of the judgment. The next question is even more interesting from the legal point of view: What are the legal consequences of a violation of Article 3 of the Convention, especially with regard to criminal court cases against the offender and the victim of torture? The ECHR emphasizes the necessity of the effectiveness of the protection of the fundamental rights under the Convention. As a result, it argues for a thorough investigation and deterrent punishment of the offenders on the one hand and for an extensive exclusion of evidence obtained as a consequence of torture from the proceedings against the victim of torture on the other.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 746
Author(s):  
Irina N. CHEBOTAREVA

The research deals with the case law of European Court of Human Rights against the Russian Federation on complaints of its citizens regarding violation of Article 6 of European Convention on Human Rights in criminal proceedings when it considers waiver. The author has defined and analyzed both the standards of waiver and the Court’s approaches to the establishment of waiver and the requirements and conditions developed by it. The author’s analysis of the decisions of European Court of Justice in respect of Russia, in which the court considered the legality of waiver in specific criminal cases when the Russian authorities claimed that the Applicant had waived his right, has led to the conclusion about misunderstanding of the Russian law executor of this legal phenomenon. As a result the defects of law enforcement are hidden behind the waiver of one’s right in the Russian criminal process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-246
Author(s):  
I I Kucherov

Monograph by D.A. Pechegin «Competitive and investigative models of proceedings in the International Criminal Court» is devoted to the study of the model of criminal justice, as well as its implementation in the structure of adversarial and investigative principles, both internationally and nationally. The reader is presented with a comprehensive analysis of various issues in the production of criminal cases through the prism of analyzing the provisions of not only domestic and foreign legislation, but also statutory and other documents of international criminal tribunals, ad hoc courts, the European Court of Human Rights.


The issues of Improper protection of rights and legal interests of the patients due to improper performance of professional duties by a medical or pharmaceutical worker are considered. In particular, problems arising during the application of the norm of criminal liability for specified socially dangerous acts are considered. At the same time, cases of serious consequences to the patient's life and health due to a medical error or actions of medical or pharmaceutical workers committed in the absence of fault are considered although they result in the death of the patient or other grave consequences. Particular attention is paid to iatrogenic mental illness, caused by improper professional activity of the medical workers and peculiarities of the psyche of the patients. Particular attention is paid to the study of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the legal guarantee of the right to life in Ukraine in the context of criminal proceedings. Ukraine is a party to virtually all international human rights treaties. It imposes on it the obligation to adhere to European norms in the field of human protection. The need for comparative study of laws and effectiveness of their application at the present stage of society's development is due to the process of globalization affecting today not only economic and political processes but also the process of lawmaking. This requires the lawyers of different countries to join in the development of the theoretical foundations of lawmaking to formulate in the aggregate knowledge about the effect of laws based on world legal traditions and experience of the separate states. The complex structure of the health care organizations has led to the need for new models of healthcare professionals to ensure the quality of care and patient safety. In the current situation, patient safety is one of the new challenges faced by the medical students in undergraduate and postgraduate education. This involves incorporating a patient safety culture into curricula, in particular for the doctors and other health care professionals. The scientific article is aimed at solving the issues of criminal law protection as the rights of people in need of the medical services as well as medical and pharmaceutical workers who provide these services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-319
Author(s):  
Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi

Although EU states use the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for the purpose of surrendering a person who is accused of committing an offence or who has been convicted of an offence, they use extradition when dealing with countries outside the EU. However, they use surrender when dealing with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Thus, extradition is one of the ways in which African and European countries (especially EU members) are cooperating in the fight against crime. Case law from courts in some African and European countries and from the European Court of Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture, shows that extraditions between African and European countries have been delayed or hampered by allegations of human rights violations in the requesting state. These allegations have focused on mainly two rights: the right to a fair trial and the right to freedom from torture. The European Court of Human Rights has held that the extradition of a person should not go ahead if his or her trial was or will amount to a flagrant denial of justice or where there is a real risk of being subjected to torture. Although African courts and international human rights bodies have also held that extradition should not go ahead where there is a real risk that the person will be subjected to torture or where his/her trial will be unfair, they have not adopted the ‘flagrant denial of justice’ test. The case law also shows that some people have challenged the legal basis for their extradition. This article highlights this case law and suggests ways in which some of the challenges associated with extradition could be overcome. The article demonstrates that courts in some African and European countries have considered the nature of extradition enquiries. In some countries, such as Kenya, courts have held that extradition enquiries are criminal proceedings. However, in the United Kingdom, courts have held that extradition enquiries are criminal proceedings of a special type. There is consensus that extradition enquiries are not civil proceedings.


Invoking famous words by Martin Luther King Jr.–‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice’–this volume analyses developments respecting global justice in the decades since the end of World War II. Presented are dozens of essays by eminent scholars, each contributed in recognition of the collection’s honouree, Professor William A. Schabas. Schabas’s work has spanned many topics in international law and has placed him in multiple roles in international courts and organizations. Accordingly, this volume discusses institutions including the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court, and instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Fits and starts in global justice are examined with regard to many phenomena: peace and war, international crimes, culture, death penalty, environmental degradation, and not least, education and scholarship.


2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Rietiker

AbstractThe recent past has shown an ever-growing fragmentation of the international legal system where lawyers and judges are facing more and more the phenomenon of the same legal question being discussed in different fora. This is particularly the case in the field of human rights that entails the dispersal of responsibilities for interpretation of numerous instruments among various different judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, of both universal and regional nature. In order to secure coherence and legal certainty in the system, it is important to respect a set of principles and rules of general international law, in particular Articles 31–33 of the 1969 Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties (VCLT). The first goal of this article is to analyse whether the Court applies the rules of the VCLT to the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Secondly, assuming that the VCLT fully applies, it will be analysed whether Article 31(1) VCLT is flexible enough to allow nevertheless some leeway for the development of specificities, especially as a result of the particular nature of the ECHR. Thirdly, it will be shown that the Court has indeed developed a set of specific methods of interpretation, aiming to render the rights enshrined in the ECHR effective. From the author's point of view, they can all be regarded as sub-forms (or partial aspects) of the teleological interpretation. He distinguishes between four dimensions of the principle of "effectiveness".


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-211
Author(s):  
Stanisław Trociuk

The changes in the broadly conceived criminal procedure which were introduced in recent years refer to the problems which are crucial from the perspective of the protection of human rights, such as the scope of the authority of the services due to operational control which is conducted secretly, the model of the functioning of the public prosecution service or the unlawful acquiring of evidence in a criminal procedure. The evaluation of these changes, conducted by the Ombudsman from the point of view of the constitutional standards of the protection of the rights of the individual is not positive. The new regulations reduce the quality of these standards and they do not contain sufficient guarantees of protection against the arbitrariness of the activities engaged in these terms by the organs of public authority. This phenomenon imposes a particular duty on the courts – which hear criminal cases – to see that the final decision in a criminal case respects the universal standards of the protection of human rights.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 2728-2732
Author(s):  
Natalia Antoniuk

The aim: Determining the need to differentiate the criminal liability of medical workers for damage caused in the course of professional activity. Materials and methods: This following research is based on an analysis of laws (21 laws), court judgments and case files (108 judgments and 8 case files), judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (4) and the legal doctrine of criminal law. Comparative, systematic, analytic, and empiric methods have been used in this research. During the preparation of this article the results of personal experience of the scientific work (17 years), the experience of advocacy (11 years), and the experience of the Supreme Court's judge have been applied. Results: The analysis of case files, thoughts of scientists and lawyers-practitioners allowed to propose criteria and indicators influencing increasing or decreasing of social dangerousness of actions committed by medical professionals. It is noted that the necessity of the legislator to consider the close interrelation of professional medical services and influence on the health of persons who demand medical services or need health care during differentiation of criminal liability. Conclusions: The necessity of differentiating approach to the criminal liability of medical professionals who inflict health damages or death is stated in comparison with the liability of general subjects of a crime.


THE BULLETIN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (390) ◽  
pp. 262-267
Author(s):  
L. Yu. Fomina

The development of digitalization processes and their implementation in educational activities, the establishment of certain legal and ethical requirements for its participants determine the importance of ensuring privacy, identifying and preventing the actions that can be considered as interference with it, and specifying the limits of admissibility of such interference. The purpose of the article is to identify, analyze and generalize the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the protection of the right to respect for private life in relation to educational activities. Conclusions were made about broad understanding of private life and interference with it by the European Court of Human Rights in the framework of educational activities. It was pointed out that its content includes questions related to the teacher’s professional activity, the compliance of the participants in the educational activity with certain requirements for appearance and behavior, and control over their behavior using modern technologies. It was revealed that interference with private life in the course of educational activities is possible provided that certain criteria for its admissibility, connected with both moral attitudes of the subjects of such activities and with the developed international standards, are met.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document