Operation Sophia in Uncharted Waters: European and International Law Challenges for the eu Naval Mission in the Mediterranean Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Butler ◽  
Martin Ratcovich
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
International Refugee Law

This article addresses the main legal challenges facing the European Union (eu) Naval Force, eunavfor Med (‘Operation Sophia’), established in 2015, to disrupt human smuggling and trafficking activities in the Mediterranean Sea. It examines a number of legal issues that have given rise to scepticism on the viability of this type of operation, ranging from challenges under European Union law regarding mandate and oversight, to complex questions of compliance with international law. Forcible measures may be at variance with the international law of the sea, binding on the eu and its Member States alike. Even if such strictures can be avoided by a broad United Nations mandate and/or the consent of the neighbouring government(s), international refugee law and international human rights law provide limitations on the measures that Operation Sophia will be tasked with. Different avenues will be explored to ensure the Operation’s compliance with these different legal regimes.

Part I International Refugee Law— Reflections on the Scholarly Field, Ch.2 Race, Refugees, and International Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tendayi Achiume E
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Role Of Religion

The experiences of refugees are heavily mediated by race and ethnicity, and international law plays a significant role in this mediation—in some cases offering important protections, and in others entrenching discrimination and exclusion. This Chapter makes four contributions. First, it articulates a structural and intersectional account of race, racial discrimination and xenophobic discrimination as essential starting points for international legal analysis of race and refugees. This analysis includes the overlap and distinctions between racial and xenophobic discrimination, as well as the role of religion, class and gender in shaping racial discrimination against refugees. Secondly, it reviews the doctrine on race and refugees in international refugee law and international human rights law, and maps the attendant academic literature analyzing this law. Thirdly, the Chapter canvasses legal scholarship that has examined the structure, history and development of the international refugee regime in relation to race. Finally, it concludes with reflections on a research agenda on race and refugees.

Unaccompanied Migrant Minors at the Frontier of Human Rights. The Spanish Case

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 796-820
Author(s):  
Patrizia Rinaldi
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Age Determination ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Migration System ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
European Values

Protecting children is paramount for upholding the European values of respect for human rights, dignity and solidarity. It is also about enforcing European Union law and respecting the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and international human rights law on the rights of the child. The existing EU legislation provides a framework for the protection of the rights of the child in migration, including reception conditions, dealing with their applications and integration. This article elaborates on provisions concerning the international protection system for minor migrants. It examines entry strategies put into place by young migrants facing the Spanish migration system. The first part examines the guidelines of the reception system for unaccompanied migrant minors arriving in Spain. An assessment of the Spanish arrangements for the reception of umms is carried out in the second part, focussing on three key aspects: refoulement at the border (pushback), age determination and guardianship.

A Contested Asylum System: The European Union between Refugee Protection and Border Control in the Mediterranean Sea

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Klepp
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Border Region ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Border Controls

Abstract During the past few years the border waters between Europe and Africa have become an EU-policy crucible. In the midst of the tightening of EU border controls and refugee protection claims, supranational, national and local actors find themselves in a phase of legal insecurity and negotiation. This article is based on ethnographical research carried out in Libya, Italy and Malta. It sheds light on the different actors’ practices at sea and in the surrounding border region. It also explores how new parameters for refugee protection are emerging in the border regions of the European Union. The article argues that the policy practices of the co-operation between Italy and Libya as well as the informal operational methods carried out in the Mediterranean Sea function as a trailblazer of the overall EU refugee policy. In the long term, some of these practices will affect and change the legal basis and the formal regulations of the European refugee regime. The principle of non-refoulement could first be undermined and then abolished in this process. Using an approach that combines the empirical study of border regions with a legal anthropological perspective, the article analyses the Union’s processes of change and decision-making on local, national and supranational levels and their interconnections.

scholarly journals The Role of NGOs in Search and Rescue Operations in the Context of the European Union Migration Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
U. Stoliarova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Immigration Issue

In the early 2010s due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, the European Union faced an unprecedented escalation of the migration problem, which put serious pressure on many EU mechanisms. The article analyzes Brussels’ response to the increase in the number of victims in the Mediterranean Sea during the migration crisis, which peaked in 2015. The adoption of new initiatives that were aimed at easing the immigration issue did not lead to the expected results. The EU struggled to cope with a rise in the number of migrants who sought to reach European shores. The real challenge for the arriving migrants was crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Amid the increase in unmanaged flows of refugees and regular shipwrecks that led to the death of many migrants, non-governmental organizations stepped out. The organization and conduct of search and rescue operations (SARs) by NGOs led to the emergence of a new type of SARs, non-state ones, since even large NGOs began to conduct such operations for the first time. The article examines the contribution of European non-governmental organizations to the provision of search and rescue operations, as well as analyzes the main problems and challenges that these NGOs faced while implementing such activities from 2014 to 2020. It is concluded that European non-governmental organizations have saved tens of thousands of lives of migrants and refugees, thus becoming an important element in the EU’s migration crisis settlement. At the same time, they faced a number of problems and challenges, including criticism from some EU member states, which considered the activities of NGOs as a pull-factor for new migrants.

The European Union in the Mediterranean Sea: Navigating the Political-Legal Shallows

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-298
Author(s):  
Stephan F.H. Ollick
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Regime Complex ◽  
International Migrants ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Eu

The Mediterranean Sea has long been an important and perilous route for international migrants from the coast of North Africa to the European Union (EU). Manygrants and refugees travelling on overcrowded and unseaworthy dinghies do not survive the crossing. Rising numbers of fatalities put pressure on the EU to address the Mediterranean tragedy with renewed urgency. Frontex Operation Triton (2014–) and the naval mission eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA (2015–) were launched to survey and influence migratory flows. Although thousands of migrants and refugees have thus been delivered from distress at sea, casualty rates remain staggeringly high. Some commentators and organizations have dismissed Frontex and eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA as vehicles of an isolationist political agenda. This overlooks the narrow legal, political and practical confines within which these initiatives operate. Frontex and eunavfor med Operation SOPHIA seek to attain a level of control necessary for the delayed implementation of more ambitious and forward-looking schemes. The unsophisticated, temporary nature of the regime complex currently governing the EU’s activities in the Mediterranean Sea manifests in ambiguous language, in frequent and disparate amendments, and in the brevity of the mandates thus dispensed.

Analysis of international law on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles through the prism of European Union law

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Gregorski
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Current Status ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
International Legal System

The paper covers the topic of unmanned aerial vehicles in European and international law. Proposed changes and planned new regulations are also included in the overview. After introducing the basic terminology, the article tackles the problem of international responsibility and legal collision. Further analysis presents the division of legal competencies connected with unmanned aviation in the international legal system. In this context the current status of the EASA consultation process has also been presented. The aim of this process is to deliver new regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles in the European Union. The article summarizes the current legal status of unmanned aviation, including also ongoing legislation processes.

The Western Sahara Cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union and International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-352
Author(s):  
Balingene Kahombo
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This paper reviews the relevance of the Western Sahara cases brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union to international law. These cases relate to the contestations of the consistency of a number of economic agreements concluded between the European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as the EU acts that approved them, with the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The issues arising from these disputes include the legality of the Court’s jurisdiction to review the validity of a treaty which is already in force between parties and the rules of international law that the contested legal instruments have violated, perhaps entailing their invalidity under EU law. While the Court has rightly found that none of the aforementioned agreements is applicable to Western Sahara—since their territorial scope does not extend to a territory which is not subject to Moroccan sovereignty——this paper tries to answer a different question as to whether the Court’s decisions are in line with international law. It is demonstrated that though the Court’s competence to rule on the validity of EU unilateral acts is obvious, the establishment of its power to review the validity of a treaty which is in force, such as the fisheries agreement of 2006, is dubious because of the inconsistency of such power with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. In any event, the question which remains to be solved—and which was not submitted to the Court—pertains to the determination of the effects of the illegal application of the EU-Morocco agreements to Western Sahara on the rights of its people. It is concluded that such an application has violated the law of occupation and eventually international human rights law. These violations do not touch upon the validity of the contested legal instruments but relate to the question of responsibility for a wrongful act stemming from the illegal application of those agreements to occupied Western Sahara in a manner which is harmful to the interest of its people.

scholarly journals TURKEY–EU RELATIONS AFTER THE CHANGE OF THE LEADERSHIP OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 1 DECEMBER 2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-46
Author(s):  
Amur Gadjiev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Eu

This article attempts to identify and analyze the main factors that influenced the development of relations between Turkey and the European Union after the change in EU leadership, as well as highlight the main reasons that aggravated these relations until the outbreak of COVID-19. The threat of a sharp aggravation of the migration crisis in the EU countries against the background of the deteriorating situation in Syrian Idlib and the tightening of sanctions against Turkey in connection with its exploration work in the Mediterranean Sea created even greater foggy relations between Turkey and the EU.

Two Legal Orders: Divergent or Convergent?

1999 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Denza
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
European Court ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Ec Law ◽  
Treaty Of Amsterdam

The conclusion of the Treaty of Amsterdam and its progress through the ratification procedures of the 15 member States of the European Union provides an occasion to re-examine a familiar question. What is meant by the claim by the European Court of Justice that the European Com-munity Treaties have created “a new legal order of international law”1 or, more radically, “a new legal order”?2 Is EC law to be regarded as a particularly effective system of regional international law, or has it been created as, or mutated into, an entirely new species of law? If there are indeed two legal orders, to what extent are they still capable of cross-fertilisation? What about “European Union law”? Have the Treaty on European Union and now the Treaty of Amsterdam eroded the dichotomy between the two legal orders of public international law and EU law? Is public international law itself taking on some of the characteristics which have made EC law an attractive as well as an effective system for regulating relations between sovereign States? Are the two streams converging?

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