Part III Regional Regimes, Ch.19 Regional Refugee Regimes: Europe

Author(s):  
Tsourdi Evangelia (Lilian)

This chapter examines refugee protection in Europe, defining Europe based on its two distinct legal regimes, the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE). The EU and its Member States have developed a regional asylum framework, encompassing legislative, responsibility-allocation, and practical components. In parallel, EU border control, visa, and migration measures impact asylum by deflecting protection obligations to non-EU countries. The chapter then analyses the EU’s ambivalent asylum system before turning to the CoE, focusing on both the European Convention on Human Rights and soft law adopted in the CoE framework. EU asylum law has an expansive impact beyond the EU, including in neighbouring non-EU countries. To illustrate these expansive trends, the chapter looks at refugee protection in Turkey and Ukraine.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidiya Kotlyarenko ◽  
◽  
Nataliia Pavlovska ◽  
Eugenia Svoboda ◽  
Anatolii Symchuk ◽  
...  

International standards exist in any field of legal regulation however, they are mostly identified with standards that regulate the technical sphere, since they are the most common ones. Nonetheless, today it is hard to imagine any area of public life withno generally recognized international standards. European legal standards are formed within the framework of the two most regional international associations –the Council of Europe and the European Union. The Council of Europe sets, first of all, standards in the humanitarian sphere: human rights, environment protection, and constitutional law, which is determined by the goals and purpose of its functioning. The European Union (hereinafter referred to as the EU) using directives, regulations, and other legal acts sets standards for most areas of the EU population's life. It should be noted it is during the development of 'standardization' in the European law that specific development of public relations in the EU takes place. Defining the EU legal standardas a separate category of norms of the European law, it is noteworthy that this term is used in a broad sense as a 'legal standard' and incorporates such elements as the general principles of the EU law and the 'common values' of the EU –they relate to people, environment, economic issues, and so on. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 is a classic example of their implementation. In a narrow sense, this term has a specific meaning and does not coincidewith the concept of 'legal standard', e.g. these are standards in the technical field that are adopted by the European Committee for Standardization, that is, in its content, it is a technical publication that is used as a norm, rule, guide or definition.Therefore, they relate to products, services, or systems and are the basis for convergence and interaction within the growing market of various business sectors. Today, in international law de facto there is a system of standards that regulate various aspects of international relations.


Author(s):  
Tamara O. Kortukova ◽  
Maryna O. Dei ◽  
Andrii M. Blahodarnyi ◽  
Natalіya V. Kaminska

The rapid spread of the virus around the globe, the widespread introduction of restrictions on freedom of movement and declarations by governments about the great threat to public health on a global scale, have had a serious impact on migration processes in the world. The European legal space has some regulation of migration processes, developed within the framework of the EU, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. However, COVID-19 presented him with some additional challenges. The purpose of the article is to analyze the legal regulation of migration processes within the European legal area in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main method to study this problem is the comparative analysis, which allows to compare the legal regulation of migration processes during COVID-19 in three organizations: the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. In conclusion, the pandemic once again demonstrated the tendencies of national isolation, which exist in the European continent. The EU closes internal borders, the members of the Council of Europe make an exception to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, but they do not notify the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.


2020 ◽  
pp. 240-268
Author(s):  
Sylvia de Mars

This chapter traces the development of EU law-based fundamental rights, from early Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law up to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It considers the EU's relationship with the Council of Europe, focusing on how the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) attempt to avoid conflicting interpretations of overlapping rights, and whether the EU can in fact sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It is important to remember that the ECtHR and the ECHR are not part of EU law. The ECHR is an international human rights treaty administered by the Council of Europe. It is applied and interpreted by the ECtHR, and is transcribed into UK law in the form of the Human Rights Act 1998. The EU, meanwhile, has the Charter of Fundamental Rights as its human rights ‘treaty’. The chapter then looks at the relationship between the CJEU and the ECtHR, and examines post-Brexit fundamental rights.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
ULRICH WAGRANDL

Abstract:Ordinarily, militant democracy is about restricting the rights of those who threaten to overthrow the very democracy that guarantees these rights. Hence, militant democracy permits the defence of democracy by disarming its opponents. Turkey’s recent constitutional reform, which arguably is a move away from liberal democracy, forces militant democracy to face up to its transnational application. Can we use militant democracy’s tools to defend not our own, but another democracy? Maybe we can and even should. This article examines the two transnational manifestations of militant democracy. The first is ‘transnational democracy gone militant’, epitomised by the European Union (EU)’s power to enforce liberal democratic standards in its Member States. The second is ‘militant democracy gone transnational’. This manifestation permits treating people rallying in the EU to attack democracy abroad in the same manner in which we are permitted to treat opponents of ‘our own’ democracy. As long as we are dealing with members of the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) gives us the instruments we need. Generally, militant democracy is a militant liberal democracy, which is not neutral towards itself, but is also an opponent of every system that is antithetical to it.


Author(s):  
Jakub Jaraczewski ◽  
Wladyslaw Jóźwicki ◽  
Zdzislaw Kędzia

The chapter outlines the relationship between the European Union (EU) and two other regional organisations active in the field of human rights in Europe: the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Due to the specific nature of these organisations and the history of their interaction with the EU, specific modalities and dynamics have developed in both bilateral engagements, which the chapter attempts at characterising. When it comes to the EU’s engagement with the Council of Europe, the chapter outlines the special status of the European Convention of Human Rights in the EU legal system as well as the EU’s complicated history of and current attempts to accede to the Convention. The chapter also shows political interactions between the two organisations on different, mostly political, fora as well their common endeavours in the field of human rights, especially within the frames of the so-called Joint Programmes. Regarding the relationship between the EU and the OSCE, the chapter explores the modalities of the EU’s presence within the OSCE and the impact of the OSCE’s unique traits, such as its lack of legal personality and the requirement of unanimous agreement in all decision-making processes. Challenges and opportunities within both engagements are presented with a view towards highlighting the actions the EU could undertake in order to improve cooperation and strengthen its impact in the field, leading to better protection and promotion of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-159
Author(s):  
Gerard Conway

Formal legal cooperation in matters relating to prisoners has existed at European level for over 50 years. With the development of an European Union (EU) competence in criminal law from the Treaty of Maastricht 1992 onwards, now both the Council of Europe and the EU have adopted legal instruments in this sphere. This paper analsyses the scope and rationale of transnational European cooperation relating to prisoners. It first outlines Council of Europe instruments, including the relevance of the European Convention of Human Rights, conventions specifically on prisoners, and soft law. It then examines the more recent EU instruments, following which the relevance of constitutional principles and the prospects and potential difficulties of European cooperation are analysed. It concludes that cooperation can best succeed through a specification of minimum standards and greater coordination between Council of Europe and EU action, along with greater recognition of its specifically penal context.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Böhm ◽  
Ingrid Jerve Ramsøy ◽  
Brigitte Suter

As a result of the refugee reception crisis in 2015 the advocacy for increasing resettlement numbers in the overall refugee protection framework has gained momentum, as has research on resettlement to the EU. While the UNHCR purports resettlement as a durable solution for the international protection of refugees, resettlement programmes to the European Union are seen as a pillar of the external dimension of the EU’s asylum and migration policies and management. This paper presents and discusses the literature regarding the value transmissions taking place within these programmes. It reviews literature on the European resettlement process – ranging from the selection of refugees to be resettled, the information and training they receive prior to travelling to their new country of residence, their reception upon arrival, their placement and dispersal in the receiving state, as well as programs of private and community sponsorship. The literature shows that even if resettlement can be considered an external dimension of European migration policy, this process does not end at the border. Rather, resettlement entails particular forms of reception, placement and dispersal as well as integration practices that refugees are confronted with once they arrive in their resettlement country. These practices should thus be understood in the context of the resettlement regime as a whole. In this paper we map out where and how values (here understood as ideas about how something should be) and norms (expectations or rules that are socially enforced) are transmitted within this regime. ‘Value transmission’ is here understood in a broad sense, taking into account the values that are directly transmitted through information and education programmes, as well as those informing practices and actors’ decisions. Identifying how norms and values figure in the resettlement regime aid us in further understanding decision making processes, policy making, and the on-the-ground work of practitioners that influence refugees’ lives. An important finding in this literature review is that vulnerability is a central notion in international refugee protection, and even more so in resettlement. Ideas and practices regarding vulnerability are, throughout the resettlement regime, in continuous tension with those of security, integration, and of refugees’ own agency. The literature review and our discussion serve as a point of departure for developing further investigations into the external dimension of value transmission, which in turn can add insights into the role of norms and values in the making and un-making of (external) boundaries/borders.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 874-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul De Hert ◽  
Fisnik Korenica

The relationship between the Court of Justice of the European Union (henceforth: Luxembourg Court) and the European Court of Human Rights (henceforth: Strasbourg Court) has been one of the prevailing issues in the human rights debate in Europe. The main crater in the relationship between the two courts is the fact that Strasbourg could not call directly into responsibility the Luxembourg Court due to the fact that EU is not a party in the ECHR, whereas the Luxembourg Court is not likely to obey a Strasbourg ruling without having any international legal obligation to do so. This situation has thus far led to many observations that have called for the accession of the EU to the ECHR, a step that would legalize the relationship between the EU and the Council of Europe, offering critics of human rights an assurance that the EU's human rights regime will become externally controlled by a specialized human rights court.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-148
Author(s):  
Gerard Conway

At a European inter-state level, both the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) have developed cooperation in criminal matters between European jurisdictions. Although the EU represents a deeper form of integration and cooperation in legal terms than does the Council of Europe, the EU also has to date preferred a looser ‘intergovernmental’ means of cooperation in police and criminal matters, as compared to the degree of integration of the common market. This reluctance to integrate, to a greater degree, national systems of criminal law is reflected in the relatively limited nature of the pre-existing Council of Europe framework of instruments in the field. This article seeks to illustrate this point through an assessment of three of the most relevant Council of Europe instruments – the European Convention of Human Rights, the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, and the Convention on Extradition – in the light of recent EU developments.


2020 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
A. V. Kuznetsov

The article examines the norms of international law and the legislation of the EU countries. The list of main provisions of constitutional and legal restrictions in the European Union countries is presented. The application of the norms is described Human rights conventions. The principle of implementing legal acts in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is considered. A comparative analysis of legal restrictive measures in the States of the European Union is carried out.


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