In this case, the House of Lords considered the applicability of the leading right to life case, Osman v United Kingdom (1998) 29 EHRR 245, in which the European Court set out the obligations on member states in relation to the right to life.
Pursuant to the European Court decision, states have a positive obligation to, in certain circumstances, take preventative measures to protect an identified individual whose life is at risk from the criminal acts of a third party. Under this test, the facts must be examined objectively at the time of the existence of the threat, and the positive obligation is breached only if the authorities knew, or ought to have known at that time, about the threat to life which was both real and immediate and failed to act.
