Immigration

Neither the detention of an individual pending his deportation, nor the grant of conditional bail pending deportation, involved a determination of civil rights within the meaning of Art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The expulsion of an alien and his detention pending expulsion did not determine his civil rights. At most, they incidentally had an effect on those rights. The distinction was critical in the context of a state’s control over aliens who were within its territory. The fact that the exercise of the power to deport would have an effect on an individual’s right to respect for private and family life or other rights did not mean that the exercise of the power involved a determination of the individual’s civil rights. So too, the fact that the detention of an individual pending deportation would affect him in that way did not mean that the detention involved a determination of civil rights.