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Dickson, Brice --- "The extra-territorial obligations of European states regarding human rights in the context of terrorism" [2016] ELECD 640; in Fabbrini, Federico; Jackson, C. Vicki (eds), "Constitutionalism Across Borders in the Struggle Against Terrorism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 213

Book Title: Constitutionalism Across Borders in the Struggle Against Terrorism

Editor(s): Fabbrini, Federico; Jackson, C. Vicki

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784715380

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: The extra-territorial obligations of European states regarding human rights in the context of terrorism

Author(s): Dickson, Brice

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

Constitutions are primarily inward looking, setting out rights and obligations as between a particular state and the people who are lawfully in that state. Sometimes they give fewer rights to non-nationals of the state, but more usually there is at least an implicit acceptance that the state’s domestic law can extend constitutional rights to non-nationals, even when they have entered or remained in the state unlawfully. A constitution may also indicate that the state is free to enter into treaties with other states, the result of which can be the overlaying of constitutional rights and obligations with additional state commitments, often extending human rights protection to people who are non-nationals and unlawfully in the state. Multilateral human rights treaties usually talk, sometimes within the same document, about the rights of ‘everyone’, ‘anyone’, ‘every human being’, ‘all persons’, or ‘no one’. Only rarely do they specify protection for the rights of ‘every citizen’ or make specific provision for ‘an alien’. This chapter is not concerned with the constitutional rights of non-nationals who are already lawfully living in a state, although there may well be a case for enhancing those rights, especially in the field of electoral law.