Greater than the sum of their parts: UK Supreme Court decisions on family migration

This article discusses ten family migration cases decided by the House of Lords or Supreme Court (“the Court”) starting with Huang in 2007 and ending with Quila in 2011. It argues that they collectively embody a set of principles about the relationship between immigration control, the courts, and migrants’ family life which have enabled the affective ties of migrants and their families to receive proper recognition in the courts for the first time. They were largely, although not entirely, decided using the obligation imposed by the Human Rights Act (HRA) to evaluate law and executive action for compliance with human rights and each case is a closely reasoned exploration of legal principle. Yet they also do more, establishing an ethic of family life and demonstrating how the introduction of human rights norms may lead to a “subtle but significant re-calibration of the relationship between the individual and the state”.

Citation: P.L. 2013, Oct, 838-860