The Ripple Effect: Guantánamo Bay in the United Kingdom’s Courts

Abstract

The Human Rights abuses suffered by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay have dominated many of the cases before the United Kingdom‟s Courts involving detainees. The Human Rights Act 1998, still new to the statute book, loomed large in the detainees‟ arguments. The decisions in these cases, however, often relegate such factors to the background to the case. This article examines why the Courts deciding these cases declined to develop the law of diplomatic protection on the basis of Human Rights concerns, and why such arguments continued to be employed. Furthermore, it assesses why the Courts have shown greater receptiveness to arguments similarly grounded in accusations of inhuman and degrading treatment in relation to later cases involving former detainees challenging the role of the British Government in their detention.