ERA Forum (2015) 16:571–584 DOI 10.1007/s12027-015-0404-1 ARTICLE Third-country nationals and the Court of Justice of the EU: 2014 case-law Marco Borraccetti 1 Published online: 21 December 2015 © ERA 2015 Abstract In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a number of rulings on different aspects of migration policy. As usual, the majority of these were on the Return Directive. The aim of this article is to point out relevant key elements of the rulings by the Court and their practical import for the European Union and national legal orders. The article will be developed in two parts: the first concerning the interpretation of the Return Directive; the second concerning other rulings regarding the legal framework of migration. Keywords Migration · Third-country nationals · Irregular migration · Return Directive · Return procedure · Detention · Place of detention · Consent to detention · Right to be heard · Punishment · Health care · Carriers · Visa code · Family reunification · Integration · Long-term status · Students’ visa 1 Introduction In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a number of rulings on different aspects of migration policy. As usual, the majority of them con- cerned the Return Directive. The aim of this article is to point out key elements in the rulings of the Court and their practical impact on the European Union and national legal orders. The article is This article is based on a presentation given at the ERA conference “Annual Conference on European Migration Law” which took place on 7–8 May 2015. B M. Borraccetti, Professor marco.borraccetti@unibo.it 1 Dep. of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Strada Maggiore 45, 40125 Bologna, Italy