ABSTRACT
The Justice of the Peace asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) whether this article, in conjunction with article 16 that permits expulsion as sanction alternative to detention, rendered the common rules and procedures introduced by the Return Directive ineffective. As of 2011 the domestic courts started to file requests for preliminary ruling on the Return Directive. The CJEU was frequently required to rule on the so-called criminalization of illegal migration under the domestic laws in force before the entrance into force of the mentioned Directives and not yet amended at that time to enforce the same. Such laws were permitting, in certain cases, to apply the measure of criminal detention to combat the irregular migration. The early cases were essentially concentrated on the interpretation of the meaning of the above quoted articles 15 and 16 on detention and on review of compliance of domestic laws with European Union rules.
