Abstract: The protection recognized to foreigners by the European Convention on Human Rights is partially incomplete. It was the mechanism called protection by ricochet that permitted to the Strasbourg judges to extend the scope of certain rights expressly protected by the provisions of the Convention to other rights. This way the initial system characterized by partial legislative vacuum has found the solution for effective protection of foreigners` rights. In terms of the right to family life of the foreigners there are two opposite interests: that of the State which has discretionary power concerning migration policies and that of the individual. According to the present interpretation of the Court, the individual interest seems to have prevalence taking into account the concrete circumstances of each case.
Key-words: foreigner, immigration, general interest, individual interest, restriction