The Walls of Fortress Europe: Externalization of Migration Control and the Rule of Law

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is twofold. First, it seeks to identify the main elements of the European policies of offshoring and outsourcing migration control and to describe the threats that these policies pose to the guarantees inherent to the Rule of Law. Second, given the serious risk of evasion of democratic controls that these policies entail, it attempts to find in the case law of European courts, specially the European Court of Human Rights, the elements that would make it possible to rebuild the eluded system of checks and balances.