Teleology behind the Prohibition of Recognition of Polygamous Marriages under the EU Family Reunification Directive – a Critique of Rule Effectiveness

Abstract

This article focuses on the recognition of foreign marriages and personal statuses as part of family reunification proceedings under EU Family Reunification Directive. The central focus of the article is the principle of not recognising polygamous mar-riages as grounds for the right to family reunification. The article briefly examines the historical negative approaches to recognising polygamous marriages in the Western Migration Law as well as Private International Law and accordingly, the interconnection between the present rule under EU Migration Law and the previous case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The author then introduces the EU policy reasons for taking a stand against these marriages. The perspective of the policy aim is then critically evaluated. The critical part methodologically employs a critical feminist exchange for approach, focusing on the structure of the present rule and the power-relations it presupposes and re-creates in the relationships subject to it. The article concludes that, albeit it is claimed that the present European policy of non-recognition of polygamous marriages as grounds for family reunification is aimed at the protection of women’s rights and equality between sexes, the consequences of the rule application support the paradigm of taking all the decisive power over the relationship away from women and granting it to men.