21 November 2024
Deporting the Enemy Within
Two weeks ago, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that grants the Minister of the Interior powers to deport family members of terrorists, including Israeli citizens. The logic of this law, its instrumentalization of legitimate security concerns to not just deny the rights and membership status of minority groups but attack the foundations of a constitutional system, is not unique to contemporary Israeli politics. As such, this logic needs confronting and refuting, and this law presents an important opportunity to do so. Continue reading >>
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13 October 2023
A Hidden Success
Following the EU General Court’s dismissal of the complaint of WS and other asylum seekers against Frontex in its ruling on September 6, 2023, scholarly commentary has largely expressed disappointment. However, a more optimistic way of reading the judgement is also possible. By declaring the lawsuit admissible, the court confirmed that factual misconduct by Frontex can be addressed with action for damages claims – and this in itself is a major step forward in the system of fundamental rights protection in the European Union. Continue reading >>
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21 February 2023
Israel’s New Citizenship Deprivation-Deportation Pipeline
Buried in the news on the Israeli Knesset’s judicial reform plans are two bills that substantially increase the government’s power to deprive citizenship and subsequently deport Palestinian citizens convicted of terrorism offences and their family members. One already passed into law last Wednesday, while the one targeting their family members is still making its way through committees. In this blog post we survey and evaluate the rationales used to justify these newly assumed powers and set out why their current design is so insidious. Continue reading >>
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28 February 2020
The Constitutional Status of Indigenous Australians
In two recent judgments, the apex Australian court, the High Court, decided what intuitively seems obvious: that Aboriginal Australians, as that term is understood in Australian law, cannot be deported from Australia. The case exposed several fault lines that run through Australian law. Continue reading >>
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30 August 2018
Schengen Entry Bans for Political Reasons? The Case of Lyudmyla Kozlovska
On 13 August 2018, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, an Ukrainian national and the President of the Open Dialog Foundation (ODF) in Poland, was detained at Brussels airport on the basis of a Polish entry ban reported into the Schengen Information System (SIS II). One day later, the Belgian border authorities deported her to Kiev, Ukraine. This case raises questions on the discretionary power of states to use the SIS II for entry bans on ‘unwanted migrants’ and the obligation of executing states, in this case Belgium, to check the legitimacy or proportionality of these other states decisions. Furthermore, this case illustrates the necessity of effective remedies against decisions reported in large-scale databases such as SIS. Continue reading >>13 March 2017
Sanctuary Cities in Deutschland: Widerstand gegen die Abschiebepolitik der Bundesregierung
Sanctuary Cities nennen sich in den USA und Kanada Städte, die sich weigern, an der Abschiebungspolitik des Bundesstaates mitzuwirken. Die Idee dazu etablierte sich in den 80er Jahren in Nordamerika und verbreitete sich weiter nach Großbritannien, wo sich verschiedene Städte zusammengeschlossen haben, die die Kultur der Gastfreundschaft und des Willkommens beleben möchten und das Ziel haben, dass sich geflüchtete Menschen dort sicher fühlen. Nun gründen sich auch in deutschen Städten Initiativen, die sich Ähnliches für ihre Kommunen wünschen. Continue reading >>13 April 2016