This book considers the case for modernizing partnership rights in EC family reunification law. Existing Community law guarantees immigration rights only to spouses and yet there is a growing diversity of national laws on registered partnerships and recognition of cohabitation. The Community institutions currently framing legislation seem to view this as a question that can be settled by political agreement with little or no outside constraint. The book challenges this assumption. Drawing on basic ECHR principles, the place of the ECHR in Community law, and on basic Community law principles...

This book brings together contributions from some of the leading authorities in the field of EU immigration and asylum law to reflect upon developments since the Amsterdam Treaty and, particularly, the Tampere European Council in 1999. At Tampere, Heads of State and Government met to set guidelines for the implementation of the powers and competences introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty and examine the goal of the EU as an area of freedom, security, and justice. Since 1999, a substantial body of law and policy has developed, but the process has been lengthy and the results open to critique....