Gross v Switzerland [2013] ECHR, Application no. 67810/10 (14 May 2013)The European Court of Human Rights has held that Switzerland’s failure to provide clear guidelines as to when assisted suicide is permitted breached the right to respect for private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court declined to comment as to whether Switzerland breached article 8 by failing to assist a person, who wished to die but was not suffering from a terminal illness, to end her life.

Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Keating [2013] HCA 20 (8 May 2013)The High Court of Australia has provided much needed clarity on the question of when an omission to do an act can constitute an element of the Commonwealth offence of obtaining a financial advantage.

 Shindler v United Kingdom [2013] ECHR, Application no. 19840/09 (7 May 2013)The European Court of Human Rights has considered whether the United Kingdom's law denying voting rights to those non-resident citizens living overseas for 15 years or more is a contravention of article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Court found that the UK laws denying voting rights to persons living abroad for more than 15 years fell within the margin of appreciation afforded to States and did not violate the article 3 right to free elections.

Finley v The Queen, 2013 SKCA 47 (2 May 2013) (Saskatchewan Court of Appeal) The Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan in Canada has held that the government did not contravene the right to privacy protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by requesting personal information from individuals through Census questions. A person is compelled to complete the Census, even though they are required to divulge personal information over which they could claim the right to privacy in other, non-regulatory settings.

R v Chaouk [2013] VSCA 99 (2 May 2013)The Victorian Court of Appeal has unanimously confirmed that a court can stay a criminal trial where the absence of an instructing solicitor on a day to day basis throughout the trial is likely to result in an unfair trial. The decision upholds the first instance finding by Justice Lasry in R v Chaouk [2013] VSC 48 (15 February 2013).

The Queen on the Application of HC (a child, by his litigation friend CC) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2013] EWHC 982 (Admin) (25 April 2013)In the United Kingdom, 17 year olds apprehended by police are treated as adults. The High Court of Justice has held that to treat 17 year olds as adults offends the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which informs the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK). Accordingly, the UK must adapt its existing practices so that 17 year olds are treated as children. The law should promote the child’s best interests and provide special protections appropriate to their age.

Nyusti and Takács v Hungary, Un Doc CRPD/C/9/D/1/2010 (23 April 2013)The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Committee) held that member states must establish minimum standards to ensure accessibility to banking services for people with disabilities in order to comply with their obligation to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability.

Re Beth [2013] VSC 189 (23 April 2013)The Supreme Court of Victoria has held that a Court’s exercise of parens patriae jurisdiction can allow it to grant orders substantially restricting the liberty of a child where such orders are in a child’s best interests and necessary for the child’s ongoing care and protection. The Court further held that neither the statutes in issue nor the Victorian Human Rights Charter operate to exclude the exercise of parens patriae jurisdiction.

Animal Defenders International v The United Kingdom, [2013] ECHR (Application no. 48876/08) (22 April 2013)The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority of nine to eight, that the long-standing ban on paid political advertising on television and radio in the United Kingdom does not contravene the right to freedom of expression in article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Esther Kiobel, Individually and on behalf of her late husband Dr. Barinem Kiobel, et al, Petitioners. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. et al., 569 US (2013) (17 April 2013) The United States Supreme Court has found that the Alien Tort Statute, used for decades by survivors of human rights abuses to seek redress, has no application to violations committed in other countries unless there is a strong connection with the US. The Court expanded the presumption against extraterritorial application to limit the scope of the Statute. The Justices of the Court agreed that mere presence of a corporation in the US would not of itself demonstrate a strong enough link to bring alleged extraterritorial human rights violations within the Statute’s ambit. However, the Court declined to address the broader question of corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute.

Aswat v The United Kingdom, ECHR 2013 (Application no. 17299/12) (16 April 2013) The European Court of Human Rights has unanimously held that the extradition of the applicant from the UK to the US would violate article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights because of the severity of the applicant's mental illness.