Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
The Rule of Law and Access to the Courts for EU Migrants
Abstract
The ability of workers generally to enforce their labour rights in the UK has been a matter of ongoing discussion over a number of years. However, the dominance of the topic of immigration in the Brexit debates, along with questions surrounding the need for, and position of, EU migrant workers in the British labour market, has brought into sharp focus the issues facing the most vulnerable workers in their ability to enforce their employment rights. This, we argue, poses a serious challenge to the rule of law as defined by Bingham. For him, one of the principles of the rule of law is that access to courts is the `obvious corollary of the principle that everyone is bound by and entitled to the benefit of the law'. This leads to our consideration of, first, the perspective of formal enforcement (a `thin' conception of the right of access to the courts) and second, effective substantive enforcement (a `thicker' conception of the right). We argue that some of the reforms proposed in the Taylor review will be a thickened right of access for all workers, but a relatively thinner right for EU migrant workers, in which their particular vulnerabilities and obstacles are not recognized or ameliorated. The chasm between EU migrant and non-migrant workers in the application of the rule of law would at the very least, remain, if not widen further.
You might also be interested in :
Brexit & free movement of workers
The essay examines the different workers' movement regimes envisaged after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, highlighting the difficulties and contradictions of UK choice. In the first part, the authors look at the position of EU nationals currently living and working in the UK…
Free movement of services, migration and leaving the EU
For many people the key question in the referendum is whether a vote to leave will enable the UK to take back control of its borders. So for them the focus is primarily on Article 45 on the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which allows free movement of workers.
(Legal) assistance in employment matters to low-paid EU migrant workers in the East of England
This paper explores the everyday lives of low-paid, low-skilled EU migrant workers living in and around Great Yarmouth in the East of England both pre- and post-Brexit. It considers the legal problems they face, especially around employment law, and how those problems may be resolved.