‘What I Tell You Three Times is True’

Abstract

This comment examines three recent judgments of the Court of Justice – Alimanovic, Garcia-Nieto, and Commission v. UK – that further develop the connection between lawful residence in a host state and EU equal treatment rights, a critical legal premise of the Dano judgment. It demonstrates that this line of case law blurs legal concepts and legal statuses – social assistance and social benefits, for example; also citizens looking for work, those who have worked previously but no longer do, and those who need to rely on Article 7(1)(b) of Directive 2004/38 to establish lawful residence in the host state. It aims overall to contribute to debates about quality of law; about the quality of EU citizenship and free movement law in a substantive sense; but also about how EU law is made, applied and revised.