When Human Rights Are Not Effective Entitlements: The Awkward Case of Right to Life in Wrongful Death Actions

This article focuses on the right to life and the difficulties of protecting it in an effective way before the national courts. One of the awkward problems that can be experienced in Europe is that, notwithstanding the prominence of the right to life in the framework of international human rights instruments, States are not obliged to provide the close relatives, or the heirs, of the deceased with a legal basis for claiming compensation for non pecuniary-damages, when that person died because of an act or omission, which is not attributable to governmental bodies. In all European countries, with the exception of Portugal, death as such does not constitute a legally relevant damage. The author argues that there is a need to recognize that deprivation of life shall be treated as a loss worthy of redress, even if caused by private actors.