The prohibition against arbitrary expulsion of aliens under Article 1 of the Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR and its implementation in Polish law and practice – selected issues

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the prohibition against arbitrary expulsion of aliens under Article 1 of the Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR and its implementation in Polish law and practice. The provision discussed in the article provides an alien with procedural guarantees against arbitrary expulsion. It should be noted that the analysed regulation stipulates that an alien who is lawfully in the territory of a State may be expelled only in pursuance of a decision reached by a competent authority in accordance with domestic law. The independent courts must be able to react in cases where a Polish authority invokes a threat that an alien poses to national security with no reasonable basis in fact or reveals an arbitrary interpretation of national security. The argument that a lawful alien poses a serious threat to national security or public order as a reason to expel him/her cannot be based on vague; unproven and anonymous allegations or unspecified information contained in a secret internal document.