Recent Developments in eu Law on Migration: The Legislative Patchwork and the Court’s Approach

Abstract:

Union law on migration of persons developed over decades and inevitably in a patchwork way. The focus of this article is on the relative role of the Union legislator and the Court of Justice in that development.

It is argued that EU migration law consists of three main elements: rules on free movement of Union citizens, rules in agreements with third countries and the new migration and asylum instruments adopted after 1999, and that the Court of Justice deals with those elements not as separate or isolated categories but as closely related sets of rules in real life and in law.