by Cathryn Costello
Focussing on access to territory and authorization of
presence and residence for third-country nationals, this book examines the EU
law on immigration and asylum, addressing related questions of security of
residence. Concentrating on the key measures concerning both the rights of
third-country nationals to enter and stay in the EU, and the EU's construction
of illegal immigration, it provides a detailed and critical discussion of EU
and ECHR migration and refugee law.
Rights of
admission include three categories of entrants: labour migrants, family
migrants, and asylum seekers and refugees. Legal entry raises further
questions, and recent key measures, including the EU Blue Card Directive, the
Family Reunification Directive, and the Dublin Regulation and related
instruments are examined. As most of these EU measures deal with those border
crossings where human rights norms have already established some constraints on
state discretion, the interaction between the EU norms and the case law of the
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is a key concern. The uniting theme is
the interaction between established human rights norms, in particular the ECHR,
and EU law. Does the EU fulfil its post-national promise to create forms of
membership beyond the state, or in its treatment of non-Europeans, does it
undermine human rights and existing legal protections?
