OCEU 2255 - EU Migration Policies and European Law

***UPDATED for 2025/26***

EU Migration Policies and European Law is a selective course offered to students enrolled in PSIA’s International Security Master’s program. The course examines the various border-control policies developed and implemented by EU Member States and agencies across the Western, Central, and Eastern Mediterranean. It analyzes the legal frameworks governing these policies and assesses, on the one hand, the extent to which these bodies of law regulate them, and on the other hand, the role these laws play in shaping their design and execution. The broader aim of the course is to understand why the Law has failed to safeguard the lives and rights of people on the move and, more specifically, to analyze how its effective enforcement has, paradoxically, aggravated and systematized their mistreatment.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Provide students with factual knowledge of EU migration and border policies using the world’s deadliest migratory route as a case study.
• Train the students to apply various legal frameworks to a set of facts arising out of statal and organizational policies.
• Explain not only the rule of Law but also its role in shaping policy and the processes through which the Law itself evolves.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

• Equip students with the fundamental legal principles governing transnational migration under international and European law.
• Develop the students’ analytical skills and critical thinking over complex and cutting-edge political and legal matters.

While a legal background is recommended, the course remains fully accessible to students without prior legal studies.

Feedback will be given following the students’ oral presentation, during the last class session, in writing through comments on the students’ assignment, and upon request.

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 3 hours a week / 36 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 1 hours a week / 12 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 0.5 hours a week / 6 hours a semester