Of Surinder Singh, McCarthy and exercise of treaty rights: Insufficient evidence defeats damages claim for breaches of EU law

EU familyThe case of Benjamin & Anor, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 1626 (Admin)  considers the Surinder Singh  principles,  both in the context of an entry clearance application for an EEA family permit as well as subsequent attempts  to  seek to assert a  right  of entry at port itself.

In Case C-370/90 R v Immigration Appeal Tribunal and Surinder Singh ex parte SSHD [1992] ECR I-4265, the CJEU held that where a national of one EU Member State exercises an EU law right to work or pursue self-employed activity in another EU Member State, she is entitled (on her return to her “home” Member State) to be joined or accompanied by a spouse who is a third-country national, on terms no more onerous than those that would apply if she were seeking to have her spouse join her in a Member State other than her home Member State.

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