Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal geographies of asylum appeals

in Political Geography (2022), 98

The Common European Asylum System aims to establish common standards for refugee status determination among EU Member States. Combining insights from legal and political geography we bring the depth and ... [more ▼]

The Common European Asylum System aims to establish common standards for refugee status determination among EU Member States. Combining insights from legal and political geography we bring the depth and scale of this challenge into sharp relief. Drawing on interviews and a detailed ethnography of asylum adjudication involving over 850 in-person asylum appeal observations, we point towards practical differences in the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics of asylum appeal processes as they are operationalised in seven European countries. Our analysis achieves three things. Firstly, we identify a key zone of differences at the level of concrete, everyday implementation that has largely escaped academic attention, which allows us to critically assess the notion of harmonisation of asylum policies in new ways. Secondly, drawing on legal- and political-geographical concepts, we offer a way to conceptualise this zone by paying attention to the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics it involves. Thirdly, we offer critical legal logistics as a new direction for scholarship in legal geography and beyond that promises to prise open the previously obscured mechanics of contemporary legal systems. [less ▲]

Recourir à la collégialité pour réosudre les complexités de la DSR

in Forced Migration Review (2020), (65), 32-35

Les études menées dans un certain nombre de juridictions européennes suggèrent qu’au stade du recours, les formations collégiales améliorent la qualité et l’équité du processus de détermination du statut ... [more ▼]

Les études menées dans un certain nombre de juridictions européennes suggèrent qu’au stade du recours, les formations collégiales améliorent la qualité et l’équité du processus de détermination du statut de réfugié (DSR). [less ▲]

El empleo de comisiones compuestas por varios miembros para abordar las complejidades de la DCR

in Forced Migration Review (2020), (65), 32-35

Research across a range of European jurisdictions suggests that the use of multi-member judicial panels at appeal stage improves the quality and fairness of RSD