Universal Civil Jurisdiction and Forum Necessitatis: The Confusion of Public and Private International Law in Naït-Liman v. Switzerland

Development summary

In his Netherlands International Law Review article, Paul David Mora considers universal civil jurisdiction and forum necessitatis in Naït-Liman v. Switzerland. He argues that, in assessing the refusal of civil jurisdiction in a case concerning alleged torture committed outside the forum State under Article 6(1) ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights conflated distinct principles of public and private international law. According to the article, this led to a methodologically flawed justification for granting the respondent State a margin of appreciation in the proportionality assessment.