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Abstract
This ethnographic study utilises quasi-participant observations of football policing operations to further inquiry to discover the role human rights plays in practice. The aim of the study is to reveal aspects of the operative decision-making processes, the communication of decisions, and the justification for decisions taken to ascertain the role human rights considerations play, and if the tactics deployed met the legal standards as determined by domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Following this socio-legal inquiry, I will assess whether the force delivers a human rights approach to the policing of football fans or whether other motives dominate these operations. This includes exploration of the parameters of what a human rights approach consists of, consider the benefits of a human rights approach and identification of the structural and operational limits to delivering such an approach.
