In 2015, the United Kingdom (UK) became the first European State to
incorporate extraterritorial targeted killing with drones into its counterterrorism
framework. This article examines whether the UK’s obligations under the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) extend to such operations.
Scholars have suggested not, based on a comparison of a drone strike to the
circumstances of the landmark Bankovic case, which was inadmissible on
jurisdictional grounds. Consequently, the UK policy is perceived as occurring
in a legal black hole outside the purview of the Convention. However, this
article argues that the comparisons to Bankovic overlook the uniqueness of
targeted killing operations and the context in which the UK policy is utilized.
Considering the distinctiveness of the UK policy, this article re-evaluates the
applicability of the ECHR and proposes that the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) could find a jurisdictional link between the UK and the victims
of targeted killing, thereby avoiding the perceived legal black hole.