CCR214 | Comparative Refugee Law And Policy

The aim of this course is to situate and evaluate what one thinks of as refugee protections, specifically in an international context. Usually, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 and its 1967 Protocol are deemed to be the predominant refugee protection instrument. This results in the evaluation of every other refugee regime, domestic or regional, in comparison to this Convention as the benchmark. This course attempts to shift the lens and study domestic and regional regimes within a larger human rights framework, to evaluate not just these localised regimes of refugee law and protection but also to evaluate the Convention itself. This diversifies the various sources one looks to in order to find refugee rights and protection. The course seeks to dig deeper into the interactions between domestic, regional, and international regimes of refugee law and protection.

The jurisdictions chosen include states that are signatories to the Convention, but also those that are not. This is to further a holistic understanding and critical engagement with refugee law and protection without being overly influenced by the Convention. Further, in each regional or domestic context, the materials studied may vary, and include not just government policy or legislation, but also decisions by the relevant judicial authority. Comparison in this course may also be cross cutting, for instance, some modules may study a specific refugee right across time and geographies, while others may seek to locate protection regimes holistically in a specific region.

In order to arrive at the points of the inquiry, the course also begins with a short engagement with comparative methods and what the use of comparison is. This more general primer on comparative methods is to better equip those in the class to engage with the materials as well a in their own comparative research assignments.

The course does not seek to arrive at answers regarding the particular status of refugee law and protection in a particular jurisdiction, or how far a particular refugee right is respected, although these may be arguments and opinions that are discussed during the course. What instead is the aim is to meditate on what a refugee regime ought to look like, can a cohesive regime ever be reached, and what meaningful comparison can add to such an exercise.