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Human Rights Law

Michigan Journal of International Law

Refugee Convention

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The Michigan Guidelines On Refugee Freedom Of Movement Jan 2018

The Michigan Guidelines On Refugee Freedom Of Movement

Michigan Journal of International Law

Despite the clear legal foundation of refugee freedom of movement at international law, states are also committed to the deterrence of human smuggling and trafficking, to the maintenance of effective general border controls, to safeguarding the critical interests of receiving communities, and to effectuating safe and dignified repatriation when refugee status comes to an end. Legal obligations to respect refugee freedom of movement therefore co-exist with, and must be reconciled to, other important commitments.


Special Feature: Eighth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway Jan 2018

Special Feature: Eighth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway

Michigan Journal of International Law

It is our hope that, as in the case of earlier Michigan Guidelines on the International Protection of Refugees, these unanimously agreed standards will inspire a thoughtful and principled debate among scholars, officials, and judicial and other refugee law decision-makers committed to the legally accurate and contextually sound application of international refugee law norms.


Refugees And The Right To Freedom Of Movement: From Flight To Return, Marjoleine Zieck Jan 2018

Refugees And The Right To Freedom Of Movement: From Flight To Return, Marjoleine Zieck

Michigan Journal of International Law

This background study focuses on the right to freedom of movement of refugees. It reviews the law pertaining to this freedom from the perspective of the spatial journey of refugees. This focus on the law means that extralegal considerations will not be taken into consideration. The analysis will not proceed from any perceived need for limits that should be accepted as “a product of realism about the strains that migration, especially high-volume migration or sudden influxes, can bring to a society.”


Special Feature Seventh Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway Jan 2016

Special Feature Seventh Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway

Michigan Journal of International Law

Refugee status at international law requires more than demonstration of a risk of being persecuted. Unless the risk faced by an applicant is causally connected to one of five specified attributes – his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion – the claim to be a refugee must fail. Because the drafters of the Refugee Convention believed that the world’s asylum capacity was insufficient to accommodate all those at risk of being persecuted, they opted to confine the class of refugees to persons whose predicament stems from who they are, or what they …


Refugees Without Borders: Legal Implications Of The Refugee Crisis In The Schengen Zone, Bridget Carr Jan 2016

Refugees Without Borders: Legal Implications Of The Refugee Crisis In The Schengen Zone, Bridget Carr

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will first examine current practices utilized by Member States and their strategic partners outside the Zone to manage flows of third-country nationals from the Middle East and North Africa. It will then explore how these practices are not compatible with principles of protection from degrading and inhuman treatment, non-refoulement, and non-discrimination as codified in the Schengen Borders Code, European Convention on Human Rights, and the Refugee Convention, among others. Finally, this Note will propose targeted reforms for the Schengen Zone’s internal and external border management aimed at protecting the human rights of displaced persons and modifying incentive structures …


The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion Jan 2016

The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Convention”) recognizes as refugees those who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on the basis of inter alia “political opinion,” are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of their home country


Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne Jan 2016

Toward A New Framework For Understanding Political Opinion, Catherine Dauvergne

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper was written to frame the work of the Seventh Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law, held at the University of Michigan Faculty of Law, on March 27–29, 2015. To some extent, therefore, it has already served its purpose. It is somewhat tempting in the wake of the Colloquium to completely reconstruct the paper in light of the conversations and conclusions of that event. Such reconstruction, however, would be misleading. Instead, I have chosen to publish the paper in a form that is very similar to its earlier iteration, with a few corrections, clarifications, and explanatory notes about …


Revisiting Germany's Residenzpflicht In Light Of Modern E.U. Asylum Law, Paul Mcdonough Jan 2009

Revisiting Germany's Residenzpflicht In Light Of Modern E.U. Asylum Law, Paul Mcdonough

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note explores whether the E.C. treaties, nonetheless, provide the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sufficient competence to use the Reception Directive as a vehicle to assess the Residenzpflicht in relation to the Refugee Convention. It concludes that, through the Residenzpflicht, Germany denies refugees lawfully present their Convention right to free movement within its territory, and that the ECJ can order the restoration of this right.


Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster Jan 2007

Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article first questions the legitimacy of protection elsewhere practices. It then considers the circumstances in which the transfer of refugees might take place. It should be emphasized that the Michigan Guidelines set out the minimum requirements and constraints imposed by international law when a state wishes to implement a protection elsewhere policy. In addition, in some instances the Michigan Guidelines engage in "progressive development" of the law by suggesting safeguards that, while not strictly required by international law, should be respected in order to ensure the implementation of such policies in a way that protects and ensures the rights …


Repairing The Legacy Of Ins V. Elias-Zacarias, Shayna S. Cook Jan 2002

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 Jan 2002

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 …


Persecution In The Fog Of War: The House Of Lords' Decision In Adan, Michael Kagan, William P. Johnson Jan 2002

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 Michigan Guidelines On The Internal Protection Alternative Jan 1999

The Michigan Guidelines On The Internal Protection Alternative

Michigan Journal of International Law

In many jurisdictions around the world, 'internal flight' or 'internal relocation' rules are increasingly relied upon to deny refugee status to persons at risk of persecution for a Convention reason in part, but not all, of their country of origin. In this, as in so many areas of refugee law and policy, the viability of a universal commitment to protection is challenged by divergence in state practice. These Guidelines seek to define the ways in which international refugee law should inform what the authors believe is more accurately described as the 'internal protection alternative.' It is the product of collective …


Appendix I, Michigan Journal Of International Law Jan 1982

Appendix I, Michigan Journal Of International Law

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this section: • Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees • Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees • Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees • OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa • A List of Other International Instruments Concerning Refugees


The Development Of Refugee Law, Paul Weis Jan 1982

The Development Of Refugee Law, Paul Weis

Michigan Journal of International Law

In customary international law, nationality provides the principal link between the individual and the law of nations. Refugees are commonly understood to be persons who have been compelled to leave their homes on account of natural catastrophes or because of political events; they may be inside or outside their country of origin. Refugees may be stateless or not; most present-day refugees are not stateless. Only international political refugees-persons who are outside their country of origin for political reasons-are discussed in this article, an overview of sources of refugee law, and a preface to the articles in this volume which take …


Refugees And Refugee Law In A World In Transition, Atle Grahl-Madsen Jan 1982

Refugees And Refugee Law In A World In Transition, Atle Grahl-Madsen

Michigan Journal of International Law

In country after country a political polarization is growing, a movement away from the center-to the right and to the left. In states with a less than stable political structure, coups d'etat and strongmen are commonplace. International law is broken as a matter of convenience. The media are filled with news of interventions, aggressions, even warfare. Human rights are frequently trodden under foot. And we are faced with a rising wave of xenophobia.


International Human Rights Forums: A Means Of Recourse For Refugees, Amy Young-Anawaty Jan 1982

International Human Rights Forums: A Means Of Recourse For Refugees, Amy Young-Anawaty

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article explores the possibility of using some of the other international agreements to secure the rights of asylum seekers. These treaties belong to the relatively new body of international law- human rights law- which gives broad protection to individuals everywhere regardless of status. In a significant development for international law, 12 institutions and procedures have been established internationally and regionally to monitor the enforcement of these human rights agreements. Several of these institutions, by virtue of treaty or statute, even possess the competence to hear complaints about states' violations of human rights. Insofar as the claims of refugees fall …