Projects / Programmes
Fundamental rights of citizens and foreigners in the European Union
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.05.00 |
Social sciences |
Law |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S110 |
Social sciences |
Juridical sciences |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.05 |
Social Sciences |
Law |
Fundamental rights, European Union law, EU citizenship, migration, asylum, non-discrimination
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
27894 |
PhD Neža Kogovšek Šalamon |
Law |
Head |
2014 - 2016 |
384 |
Organisations (1)
| no. |
Code |
Research organisation |
City |
Registration number |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
0366 |
Peace Institute |
Ljubljana |
5498295000 |
3,572 |
Abstract
The starting point of the proposed project are fast-developing legal standards in the field of fundamental rights on the national, European and global levels, the ways these levels intertwine and how they are mutually influential. The increasingly intensive normative activity of the EU causes introduction of new approaches to fundamental rights, thereby creating new dilemmas and frictions among various legal norms and levels of regulation – EU law (including the Charter of Fundamental Rights), national law of the Member States, case law of the European Court of Human Rights and international law.
The fields of EU competence where normative activity is the most intensive and which are closely connected to fundamental rights are: 1) EU citizenship and free movement, 2) migration – entry, residence and return of foreigners, 3) asylum/international protection, and 4) prohibition of discrimination. The last fifteen years saw the adoption of a number of secondary EU law sources which introduce a range of new obligations for the Member States in the field of fundamental rights and thereby strengthen the protection of an individual from arbitrary interventions. Since these issues are closely connected with the integrity and dignity of an individual and consequently with increased possibilities for the protection of his or her fundamental rights, the question of mutual consistency of norms on various levels is of key importance.
More concretely, the project deals with the meaning of EU citizenship for protection of fundamental rights, the question how valid are conditions that need to be met for freedom of movement of EU citizens and whether freedom of movement is guaranteed also to a growing community of same-sex couples whose relationship has been legally recognized, and their families. Further, we will ask ourselves about the effects of the EU non-discrimination directives and the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, on protection from discrimination in Europe, as well as how to overcome the hierarchies of equalities that these directives create. In the area of migration the project deals with international human rights obligations of the Member States in the field of extraterritorial border control and whether these obligations are met. In the field of asylum the most burning issues will be dealt with, i.e. the issue of access to asylum procedure and accelerated procedures dealing which constitute the majority of all asylum procedures. We will examine whether these procedures are fair and whether they provide for the right to effective legal remedies. We will also address the current legal framework ensuring "burden-sharing" among the Member States and changes that are required from the fundamental rights perspective.
The purpose of the project is to deal with these issues in an intersectional way. This means that we will intertwine e.g. free movement rights with non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, migration and asylum issues with non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality, race, ethnic origin and religion, and the issue of EU citizenship with migration issues.
The general research goal of the project is to generate new knowledge and propose new solutions, based on scholarly research. Specific goals of the project are: to analyse the state of play of fundamental rights in the EU in the four areas, taking into account the national, EU and international legislation and case law; to identify advantages, shortcomings and challenges for the legal regulation on the EU level; to articulate normative and case law approaches; to develop new concepts and deepen the understanding of fundamental rights; to bring the four fundamental rights areas closer to Slovenian legal community through publishing; and to contribute to scholarly debate on the EU and international level in the four fields and thereby promote Slovenian research achievements internationally.
Significance for science
The project made it possible to get involved in academic and professional debate and to contribute new publications both on national and international level. For example, the papers on freedom of movement published in Slovenian journals are the first articles in the Slovenian legal literature that comprehensively address the intersection of free movement, EU citizenship and non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. The paper on indirect discrimination, published in Pravnik, is the first article on this topic in Slovenian and the first analysis of Slovenian case law in this field. Precisely due to the lack of such articles the paper contains a section on terminology related to the legal definition of indirect discrimination. The paper also deals with a wrong application of the concept of indirect discrimination by the Slovenian supreme court. The paper on the principle of protection of the rights of parties is based on the first field research on the implementation of this principle in practice, while the article also introduces a new concept of 'effective interpretation' of this principle. The article, published in International Migration, is one of the biggest successes of this project. it builds on the concept of externalisation of border control, EU enlargement and the influence of the EU on the Western Balkans region. Due to extensive global interest in these topics and this region the article could be of great interest for researchers. In line with the contract that I signed with the International Migration publisher it is allowed to publish it after one year (i.e. in June 2017) on the personal website of the author, such as the author's profile at Academia.edu. The collective volume »Razor-Wired« had a very wide outreach and only within a year since it had been published it was cited many times. Its value is not only in the fact that it was published as scientific work with reviews, summaries and keywords, but also because it was published in English and contained analysis of developments within the »refugee crisis« which was still on-going at the time. The volume was therefore a rich source of information for all those interested in legal, sociological and political analysis of the developments in Slovenia and it's neighborhood. Since it has been freely available online it's wide use was possible. The results of my paper were widely disseminated as I presented them at a number of conferences in Slovenia and abroad. After the completion of the project it can be concluded that the project contributed importantly to the discussion about the legal issues in question – fundamental rights, freedom of movement, EU citizenship, non-discrimination, asylum and migration. These topics became visible in the Slovenian legal context which was the main goal of the project. In all main topics the project resulted in publications in which a number of new findings were presented. Already while the field research with 16 interviews was taking place it became clear that the topics discussed were underrepresented in Slovenia since it was difficult to identify interview partners with any kind of opinion on certain questions. This shows that the project had an important added value as it generated new knowledge. The most visible results of the project were achieved in the fields of asylum and migration which have been the most relevant topics in the course of the project implementation. Based on new findings I was also able to obtain my first basic research project which will multiply the results achieved in the postdoctoral project and will importantly build upon them. At the same time it is worth mentioning that all data obtained in the framework of the field research in the field of fundamental rights were not yet used for the preparation of new scientific publications. The rich data which have been preliminarily analysed for the purpose of the final report will be subject for further analysis.
Significance for the country
If Slovenia (its administration, political representatives, researchers) wishes to participate under equal footing in EU policy decision-making in the fields covered by the research project, it needs appropriate knowledge and understanding of these topics. These are themes that are crucial for the functioning of the European societies and, in the context of migration and asylum, also for societies from other regions and continents. Free movement of persons is one of the four basic freedoms enshrined in the EU treaties. Non-discrimination is one of the most important principles which has not only been included into the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but also into the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Migration and asylum are among the most important issues beyond the area of common market, where EU as a whole is expected to act and deliver. In addition, asylum has been added into the first pillar of the EU jurisdiction where th EU has more competence than the EU member states. Hence, the project was concerned with key topics in relation to which contants debates and reflections are taking place, about the futur of the EU actions in these fields. Only sufficient knowledge and understanding of these topics in all EU member states, including Slovenia, can lead to the capacity to think and create new innovative policies and measures that will be effective, but still in line with fundamental rights standards. At this it is important to develop capacities to think beyond the standard, administrative, simple and predictable mindsets. And this is what the project aimed to contribute to.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
