Vulnerability and the Right to Respect for Private Life as an Autonomous Source of Protection against Expulsion under Article 8 ECHR

Sylvie Da Lomba
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Sylvie Da Lomba: Law School, University of Strathclyde, Lord Hope Building, Level 3, 141 St James Road, Glasgow G4 0LT, Scotland, UK

Laws, 2017, vol. 6, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: This paper focuses on settled migrants and calls for the construction of the right to respect for private life as an autonomous source of protection against expulsion under Article 8 ECHR. I contend that, as a core part of human existence, private life warrants meaningful protection. I posit that the fact that all settled migrants have established private life in the host State brings it to the fore of Article 8 expulsion cases. This argument finds strong support in the concept of belonging and transnational migration theory; both tell us that settled migrants’ host State has become their ‘own country’. Drawing on earlier work, I reclaim vulnerability as a foundation and tool of International Human Rights Law with a view to recognising migrants within the jurisdiction of ECHR States as fully-fledged ECHR subjects and making the European Court of Human Rights responsive to their vulnerability. I make the case for absolute protection against expulsion for second (and subsequent)-generation migrants and settled migrants who have spent most of their adult life in the host State. In respect of other settled migrants, I argue that the minimum protection standard should be that expulsion is only justifiable in exceptional circumstances.

Keywords: ECHR; European Court of Human Rights; expulsion; international human rights adjudication; migrants; right to respect for private life; second-generation migrants; settled migrants; vulnerability; vulnerability analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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