Digital Borders and Real Rights: Effective Remedies for Third-Country Nationals in the Schengen Information System

This study examines the right to effective remedies by third-country nationals reported in the Schengen Information System or SIS. Since its launch in 1995, the majority of personal data held in the SIS concerns third-country nationals to be refused entry to the Schengen territory. The use of SIS (and the second generation SIS or SIS II) entails a risk to the protection of human rights such as the right to privacy and the right to data protection, but also the freedom of movement of persons and the principle of non-discrimination. On the basis of three general principles of European law, the author develops minimum standards for effective remedies for persons registered in the SIS and concludes that these criteria are also important with regard to the use of other EU databases such as Eurodac or the Visa Information System.

Describing the implementation of SIS and the available remedies in both data protection and immigration law in respectively France, Germany, and the Netherlands, this research establishes that the accessibility of legal remedies is hampered by the lack of transparency of the criteria based on which third-country nationals may be reported in SIS. Furthermore, in both France, Germany and the Netherlands, national law provides no duty for public authorities to inform a person that he or she is reported in the SIS and national data protection authorities lack financial and personal resources to perform their controlling tasks efficiently. In her conclusions, the author emphasises the special task for judges in this field using their powers in the broadest extent, balancing the different interests at stake, and assessing the lawfulness of decisions involved. Especially in a field were the use of databases and mutual recognition of national decisions become increasingly important, courts should be able to look further than their own national laws.

The research for this thesis is conducted at the Centre for Migration Law, Radboud University Nijmegen and (partially) funded by the project CHALLENGE (The Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security) of the 6th Framework Research Programme of the European Commission. A sales edition will be published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden/Boston.