Abstract
The article will analyse the creation of a hostile environment for civil society and NGOs assisting migrants and performing search and rescue at sea. The article will focus on the attempts by the state to neutralise NGO SAR activity through the use of administrative sanctions of detention of ships on health and safety grounds. The article will focus on the emergence of the Sea Watch litigation before the CJEU, and evaluate critically the ruling of the Court from a rule of law perspective.
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Notes
- 1.
Mitsilegas (2020).
- 2.
Mitsilegas (2019), pp. 68–85.
- 3.
Mitsilegas (2021), pp. 25–45.
- 4.
Mitsilegas note 1 above. Minetti (2020) has characterised these trends as penal populism.
- 5.
Joined Cases C14/21 and C15/21, Sea Watch, ECLI:EU:C:2022:604.
- 6.
Paras. 46–49.
- 7.
Para. 49.
- 8.
Para. 54.
- 9.
Para. 86.
- 10.
Para. 55.
- 11.
Para. 91.
- 12.
Para. 92. The Court referred to its judgments of 3 September 2008, Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission, C402/05 P and C415/05 P, EU:C:2008:461, para. 291, and of 27 February 2018, Western Sahara Campaign UK, C266/16, EU:C:2018:118, paras. 43–47).
- 13.
Para. 93.
- 14.
Para. 94.
- 15.
Para. 96.
- 16.
Para. 97. The Court referred to its judgments of 3 June 2008, Intertanko and Others, C308/06, EU:C:2008:312, paras. 58, and of 11 July 2018, Bosphorus Queen Shipping, C15/17, EU:C:2018:557, paras. 63 and 103–104.
- 17.
Paras. 105–109.
- 18.
Paras. 117 and 118.
- 19.
Para. 119.
- 20.
Para. 124.
- 21.
Para. 135.
- 22.
Para. 137.
- 23.
Para. 138.
- 24.
Para. 139.
- 25.
Para. 154. See also para. 155 on international law.
- 26.
Para. 156.
- 27.
Para. 157.
- 28.
Para. 157.
- 29.
Para. 158.
- 30.
The Court has been criticised for failing to engage with existing EU sift law, namely Recommendation 2020/1365 addressing cooperation among Member States concerning operations carried out by vessels owned or operated by private entities for the purpose of SAR activities, https://verfassungsblog.de/ngos-in-distress/. Accessed on 10 August 2023.
- 31.
Para. 120.
- 32.
Para. 121.
- 33.
Para. 126.
- 34.
Para. 144.
- 35.
Para. 147.
- 36.
Paras. 150–151.
- 37.
Para. 153. The Court further developed an unseaworthiness test in para. 148.
- 38.
It has been reported that such state practices continue in Italy notwithstanding the Court’s judgment https://sea-watch.org/en/sea-watch-3-blockade/. Accessed on 10 August 2023.
References
Minetti M (2020) The facilitators package, penal populism and the rule of law: lessons from Italy. New J Eur Crim Law 11(3):335–350
Mitsilegas V (2019) The normative foundations of the criminalisation of human smuggling. Exploring the fault lines between European and International Law. New J Eur Crim Law 10:68–85
Mitsilegas V (2020) Contested sovereignty in preventive border control: civil society, the ‘hostile environment’ and the rule of law. In: Bosworth M, Zedner L (eds) Privatising border control: law at the limits of the sovereign state. OUP
Mitsilegas V (2021) The criminalisation of migration in the law of the European Union. Challenging the preventive paradigm. In: Gatta GL, Mitsilegas V, Zirulia S (eds) Controlling immigration through criminal law. European and comparative perspectives on ‘crimmigration’. Hart, pp 25–45
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Mitsilegas, V. (2023). Challenging the Hostile Environment for Search and Rescue at Sea: Reflections from the Sea Watch Litigation. In: Militello, V., Spena, A. (eds) The Challenges of Illegal Trafficking in the Mediterranean Area. Legal Studies in International, European and Comparative Criminal Law, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45399-1_7
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