CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ THE FIGHT AGAINST STEREOTYPES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF EUROPEAN … (stereotypes) is the basis of so-called cognitive economics. 13 This is why stereotypes are not necessarily based on low human instincts, but they may represent a solid cognitive performance. Moreover, with a view to a moral evaluation, respectively a condemnation of stereotypes, we need to take into account that in many cases it is minorities themselves who use the instrument of self-stereotyping in order to strengthen the sense of belonging to a particular group and to promote solidarity among members of the minority. 14 From a legal point of view, the essence of stereotype is that an individual is not perceived as a separate human being with a unique life situation and personality, but as part of a group that is automatically assumed to have a certain characteristic.Whereas the expression prejudice is used exclusively in the negative sense, 15 stereotypes can also play a positive role. On the one hand, stereotypes may significantly speed up the process of information processing and, therefore, serve as a tool of cognitive economics, and on the other, stereotypes may be used by a minority group in order to define its own identity towards the outside world and to strengthen its positive image. 16 3.1 The case of British immigration checks at Prague Airport Legal aspects related to the use of stereotypes can be demonstrated on the basis of a case of ethnic profiling that happened at Prague Airport in 2001. It is important to recall the events preceding the dispute before the competent British courts. Following a sharp increase in the number of people applying for asylum in the UK in the second half of the 1990s, the UK authorities began to place a visa requirement on the countries of origin which most of the applicants came from. However, as preparations for further EU enlargement were underway at that time, the UK did not want to enact such a drastic measure against the Czech Republic and, instead, the British Parliament, in 1999, authorized the Home Secretary to carry out extraterritorial immigration checks. The goal was to prevent potential asylum seekers from entering British territory. 17 Under a British-Czech agreement, a new immigration control system was introduced at Prague Airport in 2001. Subsequently, a total of six Czech citizens of Roma origin, who had been prevented by British immigration officials from boarding an aircraft to Great Britain, filed a lawsuit with the British courts. Three of them openly admitted that the purpose of their flight to Great Britain was to file an asylum application. Before the British courts, the plaintiffs argued that the controls were carried out contrary to the obligations under the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and under the Race Relations Act of 1976. 13 TAJFEL, H. Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice . Journal of Social Issues . 1969, 25(4), pp. 79-97. 14 OUTTEN, Robert, SCHMITT, Michael, GARCIA, Donna, BRANSCOMBE, Nyla. Coping Options: Missing Links between Minority Group Identification and Psychological Well-Being. Applied Psychology: An International Review . 2009, 58(1), pp. 146-170, 150. 15 Prejudice usually expresses a negative effect. See Jonas, Schmid, op. cit. 16 TIMMER, A. Judging Stereotypes: What the European Court of Human Rights Can Borrow from American and Canadian Equal Protection Law. American Journal of Comparative Law , 2015, pp. 239-284. 17 For more details, see KESBY, A. The Shifting and Multiple Border and International Law. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 2007, 27(1), pp. 101-119. 3. Minority stereotypes in legal practice

97