re:constitution
2021/ 2022

Omer Shatz

Mobility Phase: European University Institute | Josoor, Vienna

The Normative Gap at EU External Borders

Photo: Joanna Scheffel

A Yale Law School graduate, Omer is an international lawyer, a Lecturer in International Law at Sciences Po Paris, the legal director of front-LEX, and Counsel at the International Criminal Court. In Israel\Palestine, he co-founded a human rights law firm that specialized in Supreme Court and High Court of Justice litigation of high-profile matters. He also co-founded and was the legal co-director of an NGO that provided pro-bono representation to detained asylum-seekers. He also co-litigated the Anti-Infiltration Law case, a landmark ruling that led to the release of 1,500 refugees and secured the liberty of tens of thousands others. In France, Omer was a senior associate in the International Arbitration Group of Shearman & Sterling LLP. He also gave legal advice to governments, organizations and individuals such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Julian Assange. As the legal director of front-LEX he is currently focused on legally challenging EU migration policies before international, European and EU Courts. He co-filed, inter alia, the 1st ICC case against EU officials over EU policies in the Central Mediterranean and Libya (2019), the 1st CJEU case against the EU Border Agency Frontex over its policy in the Eastern Mediterranean (2021), the 1st damages lawsuit filed against the EU by a victim of 'Push-Back' (2022), the 1st case of a 'Push-Back' of an EU citizen (ECtHR), and legal pre-action against the EU Commission to have Frontex Director dismissed (2022).

The Normative Gap at EU External Borders

There is a normative gap at the core of the EU’s legal order. This gap concerns the lives and fundamental rights of countless vulnerable persons, depriving tens of thousands victims of judicial remedy in EU Courts. By challenging the restrictive lex lata governing the access of victims to Court, this project aspires to enhance human rights protection at EU external borders.

The Eastern Mediterranean is the case study of this project. In 2020, more than 10,000 toddlers, women and men were kidnapped from EU soil or waters by EU agents. This civilian population was then forcibly transferred to and abandoned at sea on unworthy rafts – with no means of navigation, communication, food, water and, at times, no life vests.

Frontex finances, draft the operational plan and coordinates this ongoing policy. Frontex detects, intercepts and hands over the targeted civilian population to Greek forces who complete the collective expulsion operation.

This policy triggers individual (ICC) and state (ECtHR) responsibility. But to date, Frontex enjoys full organizational impunity (CJEU). This project aims to bridge this normative gap by providing the roadmap to hold to account the most important, and infamous, EU law enforcement agency.