Learning Outcomes:
The main objective of this module is to introduce you to International Refugee Law (IRL) and its workings in practice in the Global Refugee Regime. The aim is to ensure that students understand, and can assess critically, the nature, content and scope of IRL, how it relates to international human rights law (IHRL). We will also consider the limits of IRL, in particular in ensuring the right to flee and ‘solutions’ for refugees, and how to assess its effectiveness and legitimacy.
At the conclusion of this module students should have advanced their skills in the following areas:
Legal research, analysis and argumentation;
Treaty interpretation and interpretation of other legal acts;
Close reading of legal judgements and other legal sources;
Critical assessment of and engagement in legal and ethical argumentation based on scholarly sources and debates;
Oral communication and argumentation.
More concretely, the course aims to enable students to:
L01: Contextualise and historicise key sources, concepts and principles of international refugee law and relevant international human rights law.
L02: Understand how international refugee law develops over time, both formally and informally, including the role of refugees, civil society, courts, governments, regional entities, UNHCR and scholars in its development.
L03: Identify and recognise the content, potential, and limits of international protection, in particular the refugee definitions in the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and regional instruments, and appraise the law and practice around exclusion from and cessation of refugee status.
L04: Explore key interactions between international human rights law and international refugee law, in particular as regards non-refoulement and the wider concept of international protection.
L05: Problematise the law and practices of the global refugee regime, in particular by assessing the legality of contemporary practices limiting access to asylum, refugee recognition and rights.
L06: Identify, appraise and engage in key debates on the workings, effectiveness and protectiveness of international refugee law.
Indicative Module Content:
Provisional Schedule (subject to change)
Lectures
09.09.25 Introducing international refugee law
16.09.25 Sources, methods and approaches to international refugee law
23.09.25 Seeking asylum in a world of shifting borders
30.09.25 Reception conditions for protection seekers L
07.10.25 The refugee under the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees
14.10.25 International protection beyond the 1951 Convention: expanded definitions, alternative statuses
21.10.25 Who is a refugee? The distinctive status of Palestine Refugees under Article 1D and the role of UNRWA
04.11.25 Who is excluded from protection status?
11.11.25 A closer a look at non-refoulement and non-penalisation
18.11.25 The rights of refugees, Cessation and durable solutions
25.11.25 Final class
Seminars
15.09.25 Sources and Approaches to IRL – how to interpret treaties, including systemic integration
29.09.25 Debate: ‘The refugee definition in Article 1A of the Refugee Convention is too narrow’
13.10.25 IRL Moot
20.10.25 Palestine in International Law – why the special case, spotlight on the role of UNRWA
10.11.25 Understanding containment and deterrent practices – the evidence base and the politics
17.11.25 Reform Presentations