Europe has come a long way at least in the institutional response to racism. This book describes the responses of the Council of Europe and the European Union to the worrying trends of racism and xenophobia in the 1990s, and considers the prospects for combating discrimination in Europe using tools that have emerged as a result. Part one looks at the evolution of the Council of Europe apparatus to combat discrimination and the anti-discrimination standards prescribed by its institutions. Part two considers the legislative measures recently adopted by the European Union. The contributions in...

Desperate and vulnerable people, who take enormous risks to migrate to Europe in rickety boats or concealed in the containers of articulated lorries, are familiar images portrayed in the media of "irregular migrants." Irregular migration has become a major political concern both at the European level and in the wider international context. In the European Union, politicians have identified irregular migration as a "problem" and have given priority to preventing this phenomenon in the development of the common asylum and immigration policy. This collection of essays is the outcome of an...

This is a study of the legal framework on criminal measures on trafficking and/or smuggling and facilitating illegal entry in six Member States: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, and the European Union. This issue is at the nexus of migration and criminal law. The system of criminal law in the Member States is a central part of the balance of the powers of the authorities and the rights of the citizen. The way in which civil liberties of the individual are weighed in comparison with public protection duties by the authorities is in essence a constitutional issue. The...

This volume offers, besides an in-depth study of the relation between European and international asylum law, a practical manual for European asylum law. It discusses content and meaning of all Community regulations and directives on asylum, as well as their possible use (and reliability) in domestic proceedings.

This volume traces the developments in the laws and practices of the European Union and five of its Member States (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy) at two points in time: first at the time of the Gulf War following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 2000; secondly, following the terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001. The focus is on the legal status of immigrants and asylum seekers and how that legal status is being modified on grounds of security-related measures adopted over a period of about ten years. Particularly, the question is...

The main objective of this book is to present the on-going process of European integration via a comprehensive analysis of the institutional dynamics of, and politics linked with, the emerging migration law and policy of the European Union. More specifically, it presents the historical evolution, the main institutional legislative and policy steps, the position of, and interactions among, the different actors, and the factors impeding the formation of a common policy at EU level. On this basis a critical analysis is provided of the main institutional problems, the current policy framework,...

The large-scale establishment of ethnic minorities and diasporic communities in Europe has gained the attention of social science scholars for a number of decades now. However, legal interest in this field has remained relatively underdeveloped, and few scholars have addressed emerging legal issues to any significant degree. This collection of contributions by leading writers in the field of ethnic migration and diaspora studies therefore provides some important interdisciplinary perspectives of how ethnic/diasporic minorities in British and European contexts interact with the official legal...

Borders define territories within which identities and order are described and delineated. The triptych of indentities, borders and orders is central to understanding the nature of sovereignty and the relations between countries. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the European Union. The changing definition and placement of the border is one of the most striking features of the recent transformations of the Union. The definition of what a border is and where it is for persons has moved out of the territory of national sovereignty and has become the preserve in law of the European...

Since its launch in 1995, the majority of personal data held in the Schengen Information System (SIS) concerns third-country nationals to be refused entry to the Schengen territory. This study reveals why the use of SIS (and the second generation SIS or SIS II) entails a risk to the protection of human rights, such as the right to privacy and the right to data protection, but also the freedom of movement of persons and the principle of non-discrimination. This study describes the implementation of SIS in respectively France, Germany, and the Netherlands and the available legal remedies in...

Although all European states grant some form of secure residence status to foreign nationals, substantial differences persist among them in the rights pertaining to that status, the grounds for losing it, and the degree of protection against expulsion. This volume explores the law protecting aliens in Europe under four headings: - The legal framework provided at the European level by the European Convention on Human Rights (especially Articles 3 and 8), its case law, and various subsidiary instruments of the Council of Europe; evolving European Union law based on the principle of freedom of...