Explain and analyse how the European Court of Human Rights has expanded the protection of Articles 2 and 3 through the use of positive obligations.

In the introduction, explain the issues and set out how the essay will answer the question. The essay should use case law examples of the use of article 2 and article 3 to analyse the various positive obligations.

Structure the essay to answer the question in a clear manner. The question is quite wide, so the essay may focus on certain areas to answer the question. If that is the case, then the introduction should explain why these areas were chosen and note (possibly in a footnote) the other areas that may also be used to illustrate the question but will not be detailed in the essay.

The essay should

• Explain the meaning of positive obligations and how the ECtHR has justified the expansion of negative rights; the impact this expansion has on the vertical nature of the application of the ECHR, economic and social protections, costs etc.
• Give details of the main types of positive obligations: substantive and procedural
• Using articles 2 and 3, analyse and illustrate how these obligations have expanded protection and what limitations have been put on their use, explaining why they have been used broadly or used restrictively (or not used at all) in certain situations under article 2 and article 3.

The essay should use the arguments of academics, relevant case law and reports.

Conclusions: This should bring the arguments together and demonstrate that the essay has answered the question. It may be useful to note the debate on whether the ECtHR has gone too far in interpreting the Convention beyond the intention of the drafters (states) and beyond the nature of civil and political rights.