This chapter focuses on non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals who wish to live permanently with family members who are settled in or are nationals of the UK. The first part of the chapter covers human rights, particularly Article 8 and its impact on family life. The second part of the chapter considers the immigration rules. The family members of those coming to work or study and of refugees are also briefly considered. It examines marriage-related applications, that is, applications to join a spouse, fiancé(e), civil, or long-term partner. It considers the rules relating to adult family members and children, the family life of those with limited leave, and refugees and asylum seekers.
Chapter
8. Family life
Gina Clayton, Georgina Firth, Caroline Sawyer, and Rowena Moffatt
Chapter
15. Article 12: The Right to Marry and to Found a Family
David Harris, Michael O’boyle, Ed Bates, Carla M. Buckley, KreŠimir Kamber, ZoË Bryanston-Cross, Peter Cumper, and Heather Green
This chapter discusses Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to marry and to found a family, subject to a wide power on the part of states to regulate the exercise of the right. National law may regulate the form and capacity to marry, but procedural or substantive limitations must not remove the essence of the right. The right to marry does not extend to same-sex marriage and there is no right to divorce. However, persons who are transgender are guaranteed the right to marry persons of their now opposite sex.
Chapter
19. Article 12: right to marry
Without assuming prior legal knowledge, books in the Directions series introduce and guide readers through key points of law and legal debate. It discusses European Convention law and relates it to domestic law under the HRA. Questions, discussion points, and thinking points help readers to engage fully with each subject and check their understanding as they progress and knowledge can be tested by self-test questions and exam questions at the chapter end. This chapter deals with Article 12, the right to marry and found a family. The right can be qualified by reference to ‘national laws’. This qualification permits states to regulate and restrict marriage so long as the ‘essence’ of the right is not compromised. The human right to marriage gives public recognition and legal protection to the primary unit through which children are conceived and brought up. The European Court of Human Rights tends to allow a wide margin of appreciation in respect of issues over which a clear European consensus has yet to emerge. A number of issues are also discussed in Chapter 15, on Article 8.
