City Research Online

Abstract

The ability of Member States to determine the rights of third country nationals to move, reside with and join their European Union (EU) citizen spouses might be thought to go to the heart of Member State sovereignty to control immigration matters. Despite the introduction of Directive 2004/38/EC,1 European Union law had been silent on key issues as to the entry and residence rights and the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had only recently began to shape the contours of the conditions of such entry. A major issue raised by the recent decision of the ECJ in Metock2 as to whether national law or secondary Community law governs such entry and residence requirements, in light of the Akrich3 and Jia4 decisions of the ECJ, where the requirement of having a “prior lawful residence” in another State prior to entry to the host State for such individuals was first introduced by the ECJ (Akrich) but then later refined (Jia). In Metock, the ECJ has dramatically recast its own case law, has re-embraced the fundamentals of the free movement of persons in a manner consistent with the protection of the individual and is the subject of consideration here.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is a pre-edited work and has been accepted for publisher in Legal Issues of Economic Integration.
Subjects:	K Law
Departments:	The City Law School > Academic Programmes The City Law School > Institute for the Study of European Laws The City Law School > International Law and Affairs Group

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