Episode 12: No Licence to Kill

In this episode Dapo Akande, Marko Milanovic and Philippa Webb
discuss the legal issues that arise from targeted killings
conducted by states outside their territory. They begin with a
discussion of the recent blockbuster judgment of the European
Court of Human Rights in the case concerning the killing in
London in 2006 of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
They talk about how the Court dealt with the attribution of the
killing to Russia and then explore the extraterritorial
application of human rights treaties obligations - a question on
which many courts and treaty bodies have given inconsistent
answers. The podcast then moves on to the legal issues that would
arise if the courts of the territorial state were to seek to
exercise jurisdiction over the individuals accused of committing
the killing or over the state that sent them. Would those
individuals be entitled to the immunity from foreign criminal
jurisdiction which those who act on behalf of a state are
normally entitled to? If not, why not and how does the ongoing
work of International Law Commission on immunity deal with this
issue?