Law Commons^™

Who Should Watch Over Refugee Law?, James C. Hathaway

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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.

Gonzalez Exrel. Gonzalez V. Reno. 212 F.3d 1338, Rehearing Denied, 215 F.3d 1243, Certiorari Denied, 120 S.Ct. 2737 (2000). U.S. Court Of Appeals For The Eleventh Circuit, June 1, 2000., David Abraham

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No abstract provided.

Why Supervise The Refugee Convention?, James C. Hathaway

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The Refugee Convention is the only major human rights treaty that is not externally supervised. Under all of the other key UN human rights accords — on the rights of women and children, against torture and racial discrimination, and to promote civil and political, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights — there is at least some effort made to ensure that States are held accountable for what they have signed onto.

Framing Refugee Protection In The New World Disorder, James C. Hathaway, Colin J. Harvey

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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

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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 …

International Refugee Law: The Michigan Guidelines On The Internal Protection Alternative, James C. Hathaway

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International refugee law is designed only to provide a back-up source of protection to seriously at-risk persons. Its purpose is not to displace the primary rule that individuals should look to their state of nationality for protection, but simply to provide a safety net in the event a state fails to meet its basic protective responsibilities.1 As observed by the Supreme Court of Canada, "[t]he international community was meant to be a forum of second resort for the persecuted, a 'surrogate,' approachable upon the failure of local protection. The rationale upon which international refugee law rests is not simply the …

Can International Refugee Law Be Made Relevant Again?, James C. Hathaway

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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

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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 …

Fundamental Justice And The Deflection Of Refugees From Canada, James C. Hathaway

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Canada is preparing to implement a controversial provision of the Immigration Act that will deny asylum seekers the opportunity even to argue their need for protection from persecution. Under a policy labelled "deflection" by the authors, the claims of refugees who travel to Canada through countries deemed safe, likely the United States and eventually Europe, will be rejected without any hearing on the merits. Because deflection does not require substantive or procedural harmonization of refugee law among partner states, it will severely compromise the ability of genuine refugees to seek protection.

The Six Companies And The Geary Act: A Case Study In Nineteenth-Century Civil Disobedience And Civil Rights Litigation, Ellen D. Katz

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In 1892, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in San Francisco urged the resident Chinese community to ignore a federal law. The United States Congress had just passed the Geary Act, which required all Chinese laborers living in the United States to register with the collector of internal revenue. Under the act, those who did not register would face arrest and likely deportation. The Benevolent Association, also known as the Six Companies," claimed that the act violated both the constitutional right to due process and treaty obligations with China. To combat the legislation, the association enlisted the assistance of the Chinese …

Japan’S ‘Foreign Workers’ Policy: A View From The United States, Daniel H. Foote

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No abstract provided.

The United States Policy On Hiv Infected Aliens: Is Exclusion An Effective Solution, Christine N. Cimini

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As of the summer of 1991, though the World Health Organization (WHO) had only 366,455 documented cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the organization estimated that as many as 1.25 million people worldwide had actually contracted AIDS. That number was predicted to grow to twenty-five to thirty million cases of HIV worldwide by the year 2000. With hysteria and misinformation surrounding the transmission HIV/AIDS, Congress made changes to existing immigration laws to exclude entry to individuals with HIV. This comment critiques the early 1990s United States immigration policy that added HIV to the list of diseases for which a …

Irregular' Asylum Seekers: What's All The Fuss?, James C. Hathaway

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In 1985, the Executive Committee of UNHCR noted its concern about "the growing phenomenon of refugees and asylum-seekers who, having found protection in one country, move in an irregular manner to another country..." (Conclusion No. 36, para. j). At first glance, one might not view this conclusion as objectionable. With all of the millions of refugees in the world, most of who have no protection, why should we be concerned about the lot of a bunch of ingrates who, having already found protection, now want to move on in search of greener pastures? Don't we really have better things to …

The Humane And Just Alternative For Canada, James C. Hathaway

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The essence of C-55 ignores the admonition of the Standing Committee that we must be "knowledgeable and sensitive to human rights issues rather than immigration issues. The determination decision is not an immigration matter but instead a decision as to who are Convention refugees in need of Canada's protection." In stark contrast, immigration authorities have spoken of the importance of refugee law reform as a means of "enabling us to continue our strategy of controlled growth in immigration to Canada." By speaking of refugees in the same breath as immigration policy, the department has effectively confused the privilege of immigration …

Compassion And Pragmatism, James C. Hathaway

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Open wide the floodgates?

Much of the initial media reaction to the recently released Plaut Report on the refugee status determination process unfortunately has given the impression that the changes proposed will in some sense give rise to "gatecrashing" by persons unwilling to comply with ordinary immigration requirements, thereby jeopardizing the ability of Canada to ensure the integrity of its borders. We are told that the adoption of the study's proposals would "encourage purported refugees to arrive here in numbers that would soon overwhelm [the proposed] procedures" (Globe and Mail editorial, June 20, 1985).

This is far from accurate.

It …

The Evolution Of Refugee Status In International Law: 1920-1950, James C. Hathaway

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A refugee is usually thought of as a person compelled to flee his State of origin or residence due to political troubles, persecution, famine or natural disaster. The refugee is perceived as an involuntary migrant, a victim of circumstances which force him to seek sanctuary in a foreign country. Since Rome's reception of the fleeing Barbarians, States have opened their doors to many divergent groups corresponding in a general way to this description of what it means to be a refugee. During a period of more than four centuries prior to 1920, there was little concern to delimit the scope …

The Meaning Of Nationality In The Recent Immigration Acts, Edwin D. Dickinson

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Professor Dickinson's commentary on the quotas involved in the Immigration Act of 1921 and of 1924. "Until the more recent enactment the meaning of nationality was obscured in a curious ambiguity ... the Act of 1921 made nationality the basis of the quote plan....

"Whether nationality was used in the scientific sense, however, meaning the character created by allegiance to a recognized nation or state, or whether its significance was arbitrary, referring only to such groupings as might be arranged by census makers or other such administrative officials, remained to be determined by judicial construction."

Professor Dickinson then narrates how …

Power Of Governor-General To Expel Resident Aliens From Insular Territory Of The United States, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

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In the case of Forbes et al. v. Chuoco Tiaco, decided by the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands July 30, 1910, 8 Off. Gaz., p. 1778, some of the most interesting, important, and fundamental questions were presented and determined for the time being, but not settled, it is reasonably safe to say until passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United States. The questions involved were whether the Governor General of the Philippine Islands has the power to expel resident Chinese aliens without a hearing or an opportunity to be heard, and whether the Governor, if he exceeded …