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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Risks To Refugee Law Of Humanitarian Responses To Flight From Ukraine, Catherine Dauvergne
The Risks To Refugee Law Of Humanitarian Responses To Flight From Ukraine, Catherine Dauvergne
All Faculty Publications
The invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 provoked an enormous exodus of people fleeing to safety by crossing Ukrainian borders into neighbouring states to seek refuge. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that as of mid-May 2023 more than eight million people had fled the conflict in Ukraine and crossed a border into another European state, and more than five million of these people were registered for temporary protection of some sort. Many of these people were warmly welcomed, and further-flung states raised their hands to provide assistance and refuge as well. Support for these …
You Shall Not Pass! How The Dublin System Fueled Fortress Europe, Ashley B. Armstrong
You Shall Not Pass! How The Dublin System Fueled Fortress Europe, Ashley B. Armstrong
Faculty Publications
This Article examines the recent proliferation of walls and fences in Europe, fueled by the Dublin Regulation’s failure to distribute responsibility for asylum seekers equitably among European states. Legal scholarship does not lack literature bemoaning the failures of the E.U.’s Dublin Regulation—which dictates, generally, that the country where an asylum seeker first enters the E.U. is responsible for processing his or her claim for protection. Yet scholarship on border walls and fences, and what induces European states to construct them, is not prominent in the literature. The critiques lodged against the Dublin Regulation have primarily focused on its futility and …
Refugees In The European Union: The Harsh Reality Of The Dublin Regulation, Lana Maani
Refugees In The European Union: The Harsh Reality Of The Dublin Regulation, Lana Maani
Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law
The refugee crisis is a highly contested and controversial issue. The world, and specifically Europe, has seen a rapid increase in the number of refugees applying for asylum. In fact, the European Union (“EU”) has received well over one million refugees: the highest number of refugees since the Second World War. The crisis is testing the EU’s main building blocks, including, most importantly, its Member States’ notion of an ever-closer union. Some Member States have been more responsive to the crisis than others. For example, Germany is the highest refugee hosting country in the EU. On the other hand, Hungary …
Bordering The Constitution, Constituting The Border, Efrat Arbel
Bordering The Constitution, Constituting The Border, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
It is an established principle in Canadian law that refugees present at or within Canada’s borders are entitled to basic constitutional protection. Where precisely these borders lie, however, is far from clear. In this article, I examine the Canadian border as a site in which to study the constitutional entitlements of refugees. Through an analysis of the Multiple Borders Strategy (MBS) – a broad strategy that re-charts Canada’s borders for the purposes of enhanced migration regulation – I point to a basic tension at play in the border as site. I argue that the MBS imagines and enacts the border …
Submission To The Select Committee On The Recent Allegations Relating To Conditions And Circumstances At The Regional Processing Centre In Nauru, Azadeh Dastyari
Submission To The Select Committee On The Recent Allegations Relating To Conditions And Circumstances At The Regional Processing Centre In Nauru, Azadeh Dastyari
Azadeh Dastyari
No abstract provided.
Between Protection And Punishment: The Irregular Arrival Regime In Canadian Refugee Law, Efrat Arbel
Between Protection And Punishment: The Irregular Arrival Regime In Canadian Refugee Law, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
This chapter questions the Canadian border’s reconstitution as a site of punishment for refugee claimants by examining the Designated Foreign National (DFN) regime, which permits the Canadian government to discipline foreign nationals for suspected violations of Canadian border laws by subjecting them to penalties that are formally classified as administrative, but amount to de facto punishment. These include mandatory arrest and detention, as well as compulsory reporting and ongoing document inspection. In this chapter, I examine the operation of the DFN regime in relation to other border measures, focusing specifically on the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement. I argue that …
Refugee Law In Context: Natural Law, Legal Positivism And The Convention, Isaac Kfir
Refugee Law In Context: Natural Law, Legal Positivism And The Convention, Isaac Kfir
Isaac Kfir
The contemporary international refugee system was product of a desire to provide protection and assistance to those who have a well-founded fear of persecution, a somewhat sophistic term in the twenty-first century, which may explain why the system has become cumbersome, incoherent and divisive. One explanation for the tension within the refugee regime is that states—mainly western states—seek to reduce refugee applications while adhering and upholding their international obligations. Another explanation is that it is tensions between two legal traditions—natural law and legal positivism—that are shape the international refugee law that have led to the crisis, preventing a clear legal …
Gendered Border Crossings, Efrat Arbel
Gendered Border Crossings, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
Nine years after the implementation of the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), this chapter examines the STCA while asking the question: what about gender? How have initial concerns about the STCA’s adverse gender impact mapped onto the current, much-altered landscape of Canadian refugee law? The chapter revisits findings made in Bordering on Failure, a recent report I co-authored about the STCA, in an effort to read gender into its absence. I begin by charting an overview of the STCA’s operation and effect to provide context for discussion. I then revisit the central findings made in Bordering on Failure, paying …
The Case For Procedural Safeguards In The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, Betsy Fisher
The Case For Procedural Safeguards In The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, Betsy Fisher
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
The U. S. Refugee Admissions Program (“USRAP”) is a humanitarian program that resettles vulnerable refugees to the United States. Though these refugees have suffered from extraordinarily high rates of trauma, the refugee admissions process does not have formal statutory or regulatory safeguards to accommodate the vulnerable nature of many applicants for resettlement. Yet, the applicants who have suffered the most trauma, including victims of sexual and gender- based violence, are the refugees most likely to be impeded by a process that largely centers on proving the severity of their trauma. To promote accurate outcomes, and to decrease the risk of …
La Culture De La Protection Des Droits Fondamentaux En Droit Canadien Des Réfugiés: Un Examen Des Affaires De Violence Familiale, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
Cet article examine les cas canadiens de droit des réfugiés impliquant de la violence familiale, analysés par le biais d’une comparaison avec les cas de stérilisation forcée et de mutilations génitales. Parcourant 645 décisions publiées, il suggère que les arbitres canadiens ont en général adopté différentes méthodes d’analyse dans le cas des réfugiés de violence familiale, par rapport aux autres affaires. L’article soutient que les arbitres canadiens reconnaissent rarement la violence domestique comme une violation des droits en soi, mais au contraire, ont montré une prédisposition générale à reconnaître des situations violence domestique dans la différence culturelle. Autrement dit, les …
The Arab-Israeli Conflict And International Law, Susan M. Akram, S. Michael Lynk
The Arab-Israeli Conflict And International Law, Susan M. Akram, S. Michael Lynk
Faculty Scholarship
The Arab-Israeli conflict has become the most prominent arena of regional and international tension over the past century. Within the realm of international law, the conflict has contributed greatly to the development of international rule-making. The laws of war, the scope of international humanitarian and human rights law, the rights of refugees, the centrality of self-determination, the laws on terrorism and the content of modern treaty-making -- all have been significantly shaped by the norms established through the copious resolutions, diplomatic statements and legal commentary on the many features of the conflict. Yet, at the same time, the efficacy of …
The Culture Of Rights Protection In Canadian Refugee Law: Examining The Domestic Violence Cases, Efrat Arbel
The Culture Of Rights Protection In Canadian Refugee Law: Examining The Domestic Violence Cases, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
This article examines Canadian refugee law cases involving domestic violence, analyzed through a comparison with cases involving forced sterilization and genital cutting. Surveying 645 reported decisions, it suggests that Canadian adjudicators generally adopted different methods of analysis in refugee cases involving domestic violence, as compared with these other claims. The article argues that Canadian adjudicators rarely recognized domestic violence as a rights violation in itself but, instead, demonstrated a general predisposition toward finding domestic violence persecution in cultural difference. That is, adjudicators tended to recognize domestic violence claimants not as victims of persecutory practices but rather as victims of persecutory …
Shifting Borders And The Boundaries Of Rights: Examining The Safe Third Country Agreement Between Canada And The United States, Efrat Arbel
All Faculty Publications
This article analyzes the Canadian Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal decisions assessing the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States (STCA). It examines how each court’s treatment of the location and operation of the Canada-US border influences the results obtained. The article suggests that both in its treatment of the STCA and in its constitutional analysis, the Federal Court decision conceives of the border as a moving barrier capable of shifting outside Canada’s formal territorial boundaries. The effect of this decision is to bring refugee claimants outside state soil within the fold of Canadian constitutional …
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Eileen Kaufman
No abstract provided.
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Eileen Kaufman
No abstract provided.
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Shelter From The Storm: An Analysis Of U.S. Refugee Law As Applied To Tibetans Formerly Residing In India, Eileen Kaufman
Scholarly Works
No abstract provided.
Repairing The Legacy Of Ins V. Elias-Zacarias, Shayna S. Cook
Repairing The Legacy Of Ins V. Elias-Zacarias, Shayna S. Cook
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article examines the evolution of the nexus requirement in United States refugee law since the Elias-Zacarias decision. Part I discusses the Supreme Court's decision in Elias-Zacarias, identifying the choices the Court made among the arguments presented before it that resulted in the motive-oriented approach to nexus. This Part also delves into the Court's statement about the evidence required to demonstrate motive, concluding that the Court's treatment of the evidence before it foreshadows the confusion lower courts have demonstrated in evaluating evidence of motive. Part II looks at appellate decisions on the nexus issue since 1992, highlighting cases that …
Causation In Context: Interpreting The Nexus Clause In The Refugee Convention, Michelle Foster
Causation In Context: Interpreting The Nexus Clause In The Refugee Convention, Michelle Foster
Michigan Journal of International Law
The aim of this Article is to explore current approaches to identifying and applying the causation test inherent in the "for reasons of" clause and to attempt to devise a sui generis test appropriate to the unique aims and objects of the Convention. Part I begins by reviewing both the principles governing the causation analysis and their methods of application in different jurisdictions. Part II then proceeds to review the considerations that might inform the development of a causation standard in refugee law, including guidance that might be obtained from other areas of law, against the background of the need …
Refugee Law Is Not Immigration Law, James C. Hathaway
Refugee Law Is Not Immigration Law, James C. Hathaway
Book Chapters
The spectacle of the governments of Australia, Indonesia, and Norway playing pass the parcel with 400 refugees, most of them Afghans, is not an edifying one... Yet the issues of responsibility, over which the three governments are arguing, are important ones which, left unsettled in this and other cases, could only worsen the prospects for all refugees in the longer run. For the truth is that when what agreement has been painfully achieved between nations on how to deal with refugees breaks down, the natural reaction is to erect even higher barriers than already exist.
Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords' Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson
Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords' Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson
Michigan Journal of International Law
In this Article, we argue that the House of Lords' reasoning in Adan was seriously flawed. The House of Lords correctly recognized that evidence that minorities face a heightened risk of being persecuted can be sufficient to show a nexus to a Convention ground. Yet it erred when it went on to hold that only differentially at-risk individuals or groups can benefit from refugee status. If a person's risk of being persecuted is causally linked to his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, the nexus requirement is satisfied irrespective of whether the …
The Endless Debate: Refugees Law And Policy And The 1980 Refugee Act, Kenneth D. Brill
The Endless Debate: Refugees Law And Policy And The 1980 Refugee Act, Kenneth D. Brill
Cleveland State Law Review
Refugee policy and law have developed largely in an ad hoc manner, as the nation has responded to crises around the world with both altruism and political self-interest. Against the foreground of refugee and asylum claims by unfortunate individuals there has been an unending struggle among the three branches of the United States government to make the rules for handling these claims. Part II discusses the way refugee policy became a weapon in the Cold War and the formal abandonment of that approach with the adoption of the 1980 Refugee Act. Part III contains an analysis of the claims of …