The EU/Canada free trade deal and disputes over investor protection: a silver lining or a cloud?

Steve Peers According to recent press reports, the planned EU/Canada free-trade agreement (CETA), which was due to be signed in September, is potentially now in difficulty because the German government now objects to the inclusion of rules on investor/state dispute settlement. This could have significant implications – for the EU/Canada trade deal, for the EU/USA agreement which is also under negotiation (TTIP), for the EU’s foreign trade and investment...

Read More

The CJEU’s approach on the minimum age requirement for spouses in an application for family reunification

Georgios MiliosPhD candidate on immigration law at the Faculty of Law, University of BarcelonaIn its recently decided judgment in Noorzia, the CJEU ruled on whether a national law which requires the sponsor and his/her spouse to have reached the age of 21 by the date on which the application for family reunification is submitted (rather than by the date on which the decision on the application is made) is consistent with Art. 4 (5) of the family...

Read More

Would the UK’s withdrawal from the ECHR lead to withdrawal from the EU?

Steve PeersHaving long pledged to repeal the Human Rights Act altogether should they obtain a majority of seats in the House of Commons, some Conservative Party figures have recently suggested that they support the UK’s possible withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), or at least some sort of national parliamentary override of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in domestic law (on the details of these plans, see the...

Read More

“So these lawyers walk into a Bar and … “ The Court of Justice liberalises cross-border access to the legal profession

Dr Julian Lonbay, Senior Lecturer,Postgraduate Research Admissions Tutor, Birmingham Law School, Universityof BirminghamIntroductionDoes EU law allow its citizens to seek the quickest possible means to qualify for a professional activity, even if it means leaving out large areas of training required by national law on access to the national profession that exercises that activity? The Court of Justice has addressed this issue recently in its judgment...

Read More

Family Reunion for EU Citizens: a separated third country national family member of an EU citizen can acquire permanent residence status

Chiara Berneri, Lecturer at BPP Law School Article 16(2) of Directive 2004/38 (the EU citizens’ Directive) states that third country national family members of EU citizens who have moved to another Member State can claim permanent residence rights (giving greater protection against expulsion, for instance if they claim social benefits) if they have ‘legally resided with’ that EU citizen ‘for a continuous period of five years’. Can they still invoke...

Read More

The EU Returns Directive and the Use of Prisons for Detaining Migrants in Europe

Izabella Majcher, Researcher at Global Detention Project / Global Migration Centre and PhD candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is Geneva.Can immigration detainees be held in prisons? Can they be confined alongside ordinary prisoners? Last Thursday 17 July 2014, in its decisions on the joint cases of Bero & Bouzalmate (C-473/13 & C-514/13) and the case of Pham (C-474/13),...

Read More