Prohibition of torture in the case law of the EU Court of Justice

In the context of Ukraine’s European integration, an important task is to deepen judges’ knowledge of the European Union’s legal standards and the practice of their application. This was the subject of the webinar ‘EU Standards in the Fight against Torture: the Directive and the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union’, organised by the National School of Judges of Ukraine on 22 October 2026.

The aim of the training was to deepen judges’ understanding of the EU’s legal approaches to protecting individuals from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The webinar was led by Professor Nataliia Akhtyrska of the Department of Criminology at the Educational and Scientific Institute of Law, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

During the first part of the session, participants examined the fundamentals of EU legal regulation concerning the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

The second part was devoted to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in particular the legal positions regarding the enforcement of this prohibition and the criteria applied by European judges when considering relevant cases.

The training helped to deepen the judges’ understanding of EU standards on the protection of human dignity and to analyse the current case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which is essential for understanding European approaches to combating torture and inhuman treatment.