European Migration and Asylum Law

Full course description

This course provides an advanced conceptual understanding of the content, workings, and shortcomings of EU law in migration, asylum, external border control, return, and visa policies, as well as of the law of statelessness and citizenship from a comparative and transnational perspective. It also focuses on the interaction of EU law in these fields with international refugee, migration, and human rights law.

The course covers the core issues in asylum law, refugee law, and human rights law that define the scope of international protection and the rights of forced migrants. It critically assesses legal migration regulation in the EU, with a focus on labour migration, family reunification, and integration. It appraises the development of the visa and external border control policies and their intersection with EU’s asylum and return policies. Apart from the constitutional dimension, the course delves into the policies’ administrative governance, focusing on key elements such as the role of EU agencies in policy formation and implementation. Finally, the course analyses the legal requirements for acquisition and loss of nationality from a comparative and transnational perspective, as well as the legal framework surrounding statelessness.

Lectures will be interactive and involve the close analysis of legal texts, discussion of points of interpretation and debate, as well as more general scholarly discussion. The general discussion will often focus on interdisciplinary readings, framing the legal issues in more political and theoretical terms. The weekly tutorials will focus on critical legal perspectives or practical legal skills exercises and will provide a space for clarification and follow-up on the issues covered by the lectures. Legal skills exercises will involve analysing treaty provisions or case law, or solving a short problem question. Students will also be required to take part in Refugee Law Moot Court.

Formative Assessments

The formative assessments will consist of legal problem solving exercises, the refugee law moot court, and legal argumentation and debate in class.

Summative Assessments      

The course is assessed by means of two written assignments, one more heavily geared towards legal problem solving and the second an essay type assignment. For the essay, students have the possibility to select from a wide array of proposed topics covering all areas studied during the course. It is expected that the essay will contain own argumentation and critical reflection on the subject matter.