The ‘Europe Route’ for EU Citizens and their Family Members
Tuesday 3 November, 12:00-13:00
Jeremy Bierbach, originally from Pittsburgh, immigrated to the Netherlands in 2001 and in 2015 defended his PhD thesis in European constitutional law at the University of Amsterdam. His specialty and focus of interest is in invoking norms of international law, EU law in particular, as a source of protection for members of minority groups who are unrepresented or underrepresented in the democratic process: in particular EU citizens, their non-EU citizen family members, and other non-EU citizen immigrants to the Netherlands. He represented two non-EU citizens, P. and S., in challenging the Dutch state on its laws providing for a fine to be imposed on immigrants who do not pass the civic integration exam (inburgeringsexamen) by a set deadline. The underlying questions of EU law were ultimately referred to and decided on by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2015, establishing important limits on the extent to which immigrants can be penalized without a complete examination of their personal circumstances and needs.
