LCIL Friday Lecture ‘The Principle of Due Diligence: A Core Principle of International Human Rights Law?’ by Lorna McGregor

Lecture summary:  In a series of recent cases in regional human rights courts, the principle of due diligence appears to have finally overcome the restraints of the Osman case to become a principle capable of preventing and protecting individuals and groups in positions of vulnerability from abuse and discrimination by third parties. The principle is also frequently advanced when examining states’ obligations for the acts of corporations although less frequently in relation to third states. In this paper, I consider whether the principle of due diligence has – and should – fully move from a peripheral to central position in international human rights law, looking in particular at challenging and underdeveloped areas of analysis such as reparation and preventative frameworks that condition specific findings of state responsibility.

Lorna McGregor is the Director of the Human Rights Centre and a Reader in Law at the University of Essex. She researches and teaches in the areas of public international law, particularly international human rights law, international criminal law and transitional justice. Her work has appeared in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the Journal of International Criminal Justice and the International Journal of Transitional Justice. In addition to her academic research, Lorna is a Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law’s Interest Group on Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law, a Co-Chair of the European Society of International Law’s Interest Group on Human Rights, a member of REDRESS’ Legal Advisory Council and a trustee of the AIRE Centre. Since 2012, she has led an expert group of academics and human rights practitioners working on the review of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Prior to joining Essex, she held positions as the International Legal Adviser at REDRESS, as a Programme Lawyer at the International Bar Association and in Sri Lanka at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Lorna holds an LL.B (First Class Honours) from Edinburgh Law School and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where she was a Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholar and Henigson Fellow. She is admitted as an attorney in New York State

Speaker:  Dr Lorna McGregor, Director, Human Rights Centre, University of Ess