State Liability for Police Violence in Convention Law

Sa？etak This article seeks to elaborate on the “quasi-criminal jurisdiction” of human rights bodies in the contemporary European setting by analysing the practice of the European Court of Human Rights where violation has been found of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights as an absolute and non-derogable norm. The analysis focuses on police violence. The European Court of Human Rights establishes state responsibility in this context if the state has allowed and/or failed to sanction the unlawful conduct of police officers, which also relates to failures in effective investigation and criminal proceedings related to such events. The authors seek to provide a critical analysis of the matter through a comparative overview of the ECtHR’s cases against Croatia (a European Union Member State) and Montenegro (a candidate state for membership in the European Union). In both cases, there are certain difficulties in the execution of judgments which undermine the Convention system and its quasi-criminal function. This also calls into question the effective protection of human rights