Case No. UKUT-00124-(IAC)

12. In determining whether an appeal is to be treated as abandoned, it is first important to identify the legal basis upon which the appellant brought that appeal in the First-tier Tribunal. If the appeal is against a decision listed under section 82(1) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (“NIAA 2002” - whether in its current iteration or prior to the amendments made by the Immigration Act 2014), that appeal is brought “under section 82(1)” and is governed by the regime established by NIAA 2002. 13. However, if the appeal is against an “EEA decision”, as defined by Regulation 2(1) of the 2016 Regulations (or its predecessors under the 2006 and 2000 Regulations), that appeal is brought under those Regulations by virtue of Regulation 36(1), which provides: “36.— Appeal rights (1) The subject of an EEA decision may appeal against that decision under these Regulations. The same right of appeal was previously afforded under Regulation 26 of the 2006 Regulations and Regulation 29 of the 2000 Regulations. 14. An appeal brought under the EEA Regulations is/was subject to the regime established by the applicable Regulations. 15. The significance of the distinction between the regimes for the purposes of abandonment becomes apparent when we examine the EEA Regulations in a little more detail, below. 16. The second matter of importance relates to the changes to the appellate regime in Part 5 of NIAA 2002 over the course of time. Prior to the significant amendments brought about by the Immigration Act 2014 appellants were able to appeal under section 82(1) against an extensive range of immigration decisions on a wide variety of grounds. Amongst those was the assertion that the decision in question breached the appellant’s rights under the EU Treaties (contained in what was section 84(1)(d)). Thus, an appellant was able to rely on claimed rights of residence under EU law in an appeal brought “under section 82(1)” NIAA 2002. 17. Upon the coming into force of section 15 of the Immigration Act 2014 on 20 October 2014 (subject to certain savings and transitional provisions) the range of appealable decisions was dramatically reduced and the corresponding grounds of appeal similarly constrained. Appellants could no longer rely on EU law rights as a ground in an appeal brought “under section 82(1)” NIAA 2002 . 18. With these two points in mind, we turn to examine the circumstances in which an appeal concerning the assertion of rights under EU law was or is to be treated as abandoned.