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Full-Text Articles in Law
Special Feature: Eighth Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway
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
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.”
A Global Solution To A Global Refugee Crisis, James C. Hathaway
A Global Solution To A Global Refugee Crisis, James C. Hathaway
Articles
The author argues that the time is right to change the way that refugee law is implemented. Specifically, Hathaway advocates a shift towards a managed and collectivized approach to the implementation of refugee protection obligations. He contends that while the obligations under the Convention remain sound, the mechanisms for implementing those obligations are flawed in ways that too often lead States to act against their own values and interests, and which produce needless suffering amongst refugees. The author concludes with a five-point plan to revitalize the Refugee Convention.
Special Feature Seventh Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway
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 …
The Michigan Guidelines On Risk For Reasons Of Political Opinion
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
Refugees And Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Refugees And Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Book Chapters
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European governments enacted a series of immigration laws under which international migration was constrained in order to maximise advantage for States. These new, largely selfinterested laws clashed with the enormity of a series of major population displacements within Europe, including the flight of more than a million Russians between 1917 and 1922, and the exodus during the early 1920s of hundreds of thousands of Armenians from Turkey. The social crisis brought on by the de facto immigration of so many refugees - present without authorisation in countries where they enjoyed no protection …
Refugees And Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Refugees And Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Book Chapters
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European governments enacted a series of immigration laws under which international migration was constrained in order to maximise advantage for States. These new, largely self-interested laws clashed with the enormity of a series of major population displacements within Europe, including the flight of more than a million Russians between 1917 and 1922, and the exodus during the early 1920s of hundreds of thousands of Armenians from Turkey. The social crisis brought on by the de facto immigration of so many refugees - present without authorisation in countries where they enjoyed no protection …
Left Out In The Cold: Trafficking Victims, Gender, And Misinterpretation Of The Refugee Convention's "Nexus" Requirement, Martina Pomeroy
Left Out In The Cold: Trafficking Victims, Gender, And Misinterpretation Of The Refugee Convention's "Nexus" Requirement, Martina Pomeroy
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Victims of human trafficking who seek international protection in their country of destination face a steep uphill battle. Special visa programs designed to regularize their status are often riddled with conditions that make them inaccessible to all but a very few victims. Despite widespread international agreement that the manifold harms inflicted upon the majority of trafficked persons generally rise to the level of persecution, and therefore that victims should be eligible to apply for asylum, many national courts misinterpret international refugee law standards and routinely deny refugee status to deserving applicants. Courts often refuse to recognize persecution on the basis …
Leveraging Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Leveraging Asylum, James C. Hathaway
Articles
I believe that the analysis underlying the leveraged right to asylum is conceptually flawed. As I will show, there is no duty of non-refoulement that binds all states as a matter of customary international law and it is not the case that all persons entitled to claim protection against refoulement of some kind are ipso facto entitled to refugee rights. These claims are unsound precisely because the critical bedrock of a real international legal obligation-namely, the consent of states evinced by either formal commitments or legally relevant actions -does not yet exist.
The Michigan Guidelines On Protection Elsewhere, Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law
The Michigan Guidelines On Protection Elsewhere, Colloquium On Challenges In International Refugee Law
Other Publications
Refugees increasingly encounter laws and policies which provide that their protection needs will be considered or addressed somewhere other than in the territory of the state where they have sought, or intend to seek, protection. Such policies-including "country of first arrival," "safe third country," and extraterritorial processing rules and practices-raise both opportunities and challenges for international refugee law. They have the potential to respond to the Refugee Convention's concern "that the grant of asylum may place unduly heavy burdens on certain countries" by more fairly allocating protection responsibilities among states. But insistence that protection be provided elsewhere may also result …
Protection Elsewhere: The Legal Implications Of Requiring Refugees To Seek Protection In Another State, Michelle Foster
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 …
Why Refugee Law Still Matters, James C. Hathaway
Why Refugee Law Still Matters, James C. Hathaway
Articles
I am concerned that the singular importance of international refugee law is profoundly misunderstood. My more specific worry is that erroneous and competing claims by governments and the refugee advocacy community about the structure and purpose of refugee law threaten its continuing ability to play a truly unique human rights role at a time when no meaningful alternative is in sight.
Refugee Solution, Or Solutions To Refugeehood?, James C. Hathaway
Refugee Solution, Or Solutions To Refugeehood?, James C. Hathaway
Articles
This is the text of a lecture delivered by James C. Hathaway in London in October 2006 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Jesuit Refugee Service. The lecture was sponsored jointly by the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, London School of Economics; the Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics, and Public Life; and Jesuit Refugee Service (UK).
The Right Of States To Repatriate Former Refugees, James C. Hathaway
The Right Of States To Repatriate Former Refugees, James C. Hathaway
Articles
Armed conflict often results in the large-scale exodus of refugees into politically and economically fragile neighboring states. The burdens on asylum countries can be extreme, and may only be partly offset by the arrival of international aid and protection resources. Moreover, difficulties inherent in the provision of asylum have been exacerbated in recent years by the increasing disinclination of the wealthier countries that fund the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and most other assistance agencies to meet the real costs of protection. In such circumstances, it is unsurprising that as conflicts wind down, host countries ordinarily seek to …
Review Of Rethinking Refugee Law, By N. Nathwani. , James C. Hathaway
Review Of Rethinking Refugee Law, By N. Nathwani. , James C. Hathaway
Reviews
It is a wonderful thing when a work of scholarship is published just as policymakers are struggling with the issues that it seeks to address.
Internal Protection/Relocation/Flight Alternative As An Aspect Of Refugee Status Determination, James C. Hathaway, Michelle Foster
Internal Protection/Relocation/Flight Alternative As An Aspect Of Refugee Status Determination, James C. Hathaway, Michelle Foster
Book Chapters
In many jurisdictions around the world, the possibility of an ‘internal flight alternative’(IFA) (often referred to as ‘internal relocation alternative’) is invoked to deny refugee status to persons at risk of being persecuted for a Convention reason in part, but not all, of their country of origin. In this, as in so many areas of refugee lawand policy, the viability of a universal commitment to protection is challenged by divergence in State practice. The goals of this paper are therefore, first, briefly to review the origins and development of the practice of considering IFA as an aspect of the refugee …
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 …
Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway
Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway
Articles
We simply cannot afford to sell out the future of refugee protection in a hasty bid to establish something that looks, more or less, like an oversight mechanism for the Refugee Convention.
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 …
Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway
Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway
Articles
We simply cannot afford to sell out the future of refugee protection in a hasty bid to establish something that looks, more or less, like an oversight mechanism for the Refugee Convention.
The Causal Nexus In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway
The Causal Nexus In International Refugee Law, James C. Hathaway
Articles
For all of its value as a critical mechanism of human rights protection, international refugee law is not an all-encompassing remedy. In at least two ways, the category of persons of concern to refugee law is significantly more narrow than the universe of victims of human rights abuse. First, only persons able somehow to leave their own country can be refugees. Alienage is a requirement for refugee status because of concerns about the limits of international resources and the potential for responsibility-shifting, as well as in recognition of the fundamental constraints which sovereignty still places on meaningful intervention by the …
Refugee Law Is Not Immigration Law, James C. Hathaway
Refugee Law Is Not Immigration Law, James C. Hathaway
Articles
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.
Framing Refugee Protection In The New World Disorder, James C. Hathaway, Colin J. Harvey
Framing Refugee Protection In The New World Disorder, James C. Hathaway, Colin J. Harvey
Articles
A number of jurisdictions have fastened onto a "solution" that appears to reconcile respect for refugee law with the determination of states to rid themselves quickly of potentially violent asylum seekers. Courts in these states have been persuaded that a person who has committed or facilitated acts of violence may lawfully be denied a refugee status hearing under a clause of the Refugee Convention that authorizes the automatic exclusion of persons whom the government reasonably believes are international or extraditable criminals. Refugee law so interpreted is reconcilable with even fairly blunt measures for the exclusion of violent asylum seekers. In …
Refugee Rights Are Not Negotiable, James C. Hathaway, Anne K. Cusick
Refugee Rights Are Not Negotiable, James C. Hathaway, Anne K. Cusick
Articles
America's troubled relationship with international law, in particular human rights law, is well documented. In many cases, the United States simply will not agree to be bound by international human rights treaties. For example, the United States has yet to ratify even such fundamental agreements as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. When the United States does agree to become a party to an international human rights treaty, it has often sought to condition its acceptance …
The Michigan Guidelines On The Internal Protection Alternative
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 …
America's Apostasy, James C. Hathaway
America's Apostasy, James C. Hathaway
Articles
It has often struck me that the prominence of the Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States epitomizes the plight of international law in this country. The title of this standard reference on international law does not even refer to international law, but instead to foreign relations law. That is, it is meant to set out the standards by which we may legitimately judge the conduct of others. The clear, if unintended, message is that the Restatement is not really a codification of laws that bind us. And indeed, it is explicitly not just a codification, but …
Can International Refugee Law Be Made Relevant Again?, James C. Hathaway
Can International Refugee Law Be Made Relevant Again?, James C. Hathaway
Articles
Ironic though it may seem, I believe that the present breakdown in the authority of international refugee law is attributable to its failure explicitly to accommodate the reasonable preoccupations of governments in the countries to which refugees flee. International refugee law is part of a system of state self-regulation. It will therefore be respected only to the extent that receiving states believe that it fairly reconciles humanitarian objectives to their national interests. In contrast, refugee law arbitrarily assigns full legal responsibility for protection to whatever state asylum-seekers are able to reach. It is a peremptory regime. Apart from the right …
Making International Refugee Law Relevant Again: A Proposal For Collectivized And Solution-Oriented Protection, James C. Hathaway, R. Alexander Neve
Making International Refugee Law Relevant Again: A Proposal For Collectivized And Solution-Oriented Protection, James C. Hathaway, R. Alexander Neve
Articles
International refugee law is in crisis. Even as armed conflict and human rights abuse continue to force individuals and groups to flee their home countries, many governments are withdrawing from the legal duty to provide refugees with the protection they require. While governments proclaim a willingness to assist refugees as a matter of political discretion or humanitarian goodwill, they appear committed to a pattern of defensive strategies designed to avoid international legal responsibility toward involuntary migrants. Some see this shift away from a legal paradigm of refugee protection as a source for enhanced operational flexibility in the face of changed …
Garcia-Mora: International Law And Asylum As A Human Right, Alona E. Evans
Garcia-Mora: International Law And Asylum As A Human Right, Alona E. Evans
Michigan Law Review
A Review of International Law and Asylum as a Human Right. By Manuel R. Garcia-Mora.