Description of the Course:
The course 'Critical Approaches to International and European Migration and Asylum Law' analyses the law's effects by applying social science theories to challenge existing legal frameworks, examining concepts like the criminalisation of immigration (crimmigration), migration and security or the securitisation and instrumentalisation of immigration, and critiquing the governance of migration policies in today's World. This involves studying the tension between legal norms and political motivations, the role of enforcement mechanisms, and the impact of new policies like the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, often using methods like Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) to highlight power imbalances and systemic issues.
Objectives:
By the end of this course, students can:
• Define and critically analyse the fundamental concepts related to migration against sociological theories.
• Critically analyse the relation between migration and human and fundamental rights and explore the inherent gaps within the current international and European legal systems governing population movements.
• Critically discuss and analyse some of the real-life cases related to population movement in which the problems of international and European migration and asylum law are exposed (for example, the rules on citizenship and acquisition of nationality, the extradition or rendition of migrants in torture-related cases, the pushback and non-entrée policies of the EU as a result of the securitisation and instrumentalisation of migration).
• Synthetise arguments and apply the knowledge they gain in this course in their Moot court case study reflexively and critically.
- Opettaja
Mehrnoosh Farzamfar