Analysis: Court ruling may prompt the British authorities to play for more time, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Pat Finucane's family, human rights organisations and nationalist politicians have been quick to seize the opportunity to renew demands for a wider judicial inquiry into the murder of the solicitor in 1989.
The British government, for its part, is more keen to point out what the European Court of Human Rights did not say - and that was to outline what the next step should be.
This is an embarrassing finding for the British government by the highest court in Europe. To be in breach of Article Two of the Convention on Human Rights, which refers to the right to life, is a serious and fundamental failing.
However, the Strasbourg court did not prescribe another inquiry to make up for the deficiencies in that carried out at the time by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It is this which the British government believes allows it to adhere to its current policy and to await the recommendations of Judge Peter Cory, the retired Canadian who is examining the case for wider investigations of this and other controversial killings.
On this basis, the government seems prepared to take the bad news on the chin while sticking to its position and playing for time.
Judge Cory is due to report to the British government in the autumn, probably in October. To do anything in the interim might undermine the judge's independence and prejudice his findings, one British source suggested to The Irish Times last night.
It was admitted, however, that this does add to the substantial pressure for a wider inquiry. Sir John Stevens, Britain's most senior police officer, has already reported on alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
His latest report, a short interim overview of which was released in April, made it clear that collusion had taken place and that the murder "could have been prevented".
This, in addition to revelations about the Finucane case broadcast by Panorama on the BBC, and the "Stakeknife" affair, which again highlighted British intelligence actions during the "dirty war", has turned up the heat on the British government.
Mr Michael Finucane, the murdered solicitor's son and himself a lawyer, claims the Strasbourg judges make a key suggestion in paragraph 59 of their ruling.
He told The Irish Times that the United Kingdom stood in violation of Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights and would remain so until such time as it remedied the failing.
"We say the only appropriate response can be a public inquiry." He referred to the ruling: " 'In cases where government involvement is suspected and objective and impartial investigation may not be possible unless a special commission of inquiry is established' - and that's exactly what we have been arguing for for years." He says the court appears to be endorsing the idea that nothing short of an independent inquiry will satisfy the UK's obligations regarding Article Two.
Finucane activists suspect that Britain is playing a "long game" in the hope that it diminishes the chances of any inquiry getting to the bottom of things and causing it more embarrassment.
As time passes, the argument runs, evidence diminishes and key witnesses either die or become more unreliable.
The judges appear to be less sure than the Finucane family that an inquiry would do much to provide redress to them in view of the 14 years that have elapsed since the murder. It could be that what the judges are most critical of is the manner in which the United Kingdom investigates disputed violent deaths of its citizens.
Just as with other disputed killings, such as the notorious shoot-to-kill cases in the 1980s, there is criticism here of the lack of openness in the handling of inquiries.
The British government rightly states that there has been no shortage of investigation of the Finucane murder. But the fact remains that much of it has been kept from public gaze.
Sir John Stevens claims that his three investigations amount to the largest single inquiry in British history, yet of the millions of pages he has produced, just 19 have been published.