CSPO 24A05 - Fortress Europe and the Right to Have Rights: Refugee Protection in the 21st Century

About 120 million people in the world are currently displaced, fleeing from persecution or widespread armed conflict. Conceiving the ‘right to have rights' as the right to membership in a political community, in an Arendtian sense a pre-condition for the realization of all human rights, refugees face a ‘fundamental condition of rightlessness': “The prolongation of their lives [was] due to charity and not to right ... and their freedom of opinion [was] a fool's freedom, for nothing they [thought] matter[ed] anyhow”. Expelled from their political community, and by extension from humanity itself, they find themselves in a state-centric system that sees “nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.” Against the backdrop of this assessment, this course will analyze key issues in refugee protection in Europe and beyond. After providing an overview on the legal framework for refugee protection under international refugee law and human rights law, the course will examine its implementation in the Common European Asylum System. In so doing, it will pay particular attention to the issue of responsibility-sharing and the shortcomings of the Dublin system. Moving beyond Europe, it will analyze the externalization of protection through safe-country arrangements as the EU-Turkey statement, the crackdown on humanitarian rescue missions and their legal implications, as well as specific protection issues arising from gender, statelessness and climate change. Though firmly based on a rights-based perspective, the course seeks to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. Students will gain a multifaced understanding of the main issues and debates of contemporary refugee politics and be able to critically apply and connect the perspective of economists, political scientists and international lawyers.

Georg KOEPPINGHOFF

Séminaire

English

Spring 2024-2025

Engagement grade (25%): Students are expected to complete the readings before each class and are encouraged to participate in the discussion, express their views, and ask questions. This will include the preparation in small groups of recaps in various formats of the main issues evoked in the last session. It also includes several short activities (Quizzes, discussion forums) on the online learning platform for the course. Group Presentation (35%): A 15 min. presentation of a given topic that is not a mere presentation of facts, but an analysis of the subject treated. Proper literature related to the subject is expected. Final Paper (40%): each student is expected to provide an analysis of a (self-chosen) topic in the form of an academic paper. The paper (4 to 5 pages) must include a problématique and references.